| dc.description.abstract | In the six decades between 1777 and 1836, five costume books – collections of prints
depicting modes of dress worn by one or multiple groups in society – were published
in Madrid. These works were a turning point for sartorial imagery in Spain, heralding
a new visual language and responding to contemporary cultural concerns. Despite
this, the Spanish costume books have received little interrogation in their original
collective form; there has been no sustained study of the manner in which these
collections were produced, circulated, and consumed, nor of their enduring impact on
perceptions of Spain and ‘Spanishness’. A confluence of factors has formed this gap:
the relative lack of attention paid to print-making as an art form, the disassembly of
the books for the use of individual prints in other scholarship, and the long shadow
cast by Francisco Goya over artistic production in Enlightenment Spain.
This dissertation seeks to reverse these factors through an investigation of the largest
and most comprehensive early Spanish costume book, Antonio Rodríguez Onofre’s
Coleccion general de los trages que en la actualidad se usan en Espa ́ na principiada ̃
en el ano 1801 en Madrid ̃ [General collection of costumes that are currently used in
Spain, begun in 1801 in Madrid] (Madrid: Librería de Castillo, 1801-1804). Across
seven chapters, Rodríguez’s collection is analysed through the intersection of dress
history, print culture, and Spanish history. Building on recent scholarship regarding the
cultural meanings of modes of dress and foreign responses to Spanish culture, several
new areas of investigation are introduced, including Rodríguez’s unpublished
preparatory drawings, subsequent reproductions of his prints, and the existence of two
versions of the Colección general de los trages de España. Rodríguez’s own career
is also explored in far greater depth than attempted in previous studies, and he is
foregrounded within this research as a fundamental contributor to visual
representations of Spain and Spanish people.
Spanish costume books are also considered in their role as vehicles for transmitting
sartorial knowledge between Spain and Europe and the Americas. A catalogue of
extant original copies of Antonio Rodríguez’s Colección general de los trages de
España has been compiled as part this project, establishing for the first time the scale
of the work in terms of its publication, its audience, and its early distribution networks.
Using Rodríguez’s collection as a representative model, this thesis reconstructs the
systems for the dissemination of sartorial imagery in and out of Spain, demonstrating
how costume prints shaped and circulated ideas about Spanish dress at the beginning
of the nineteenth century. The prevalent theory in scholarship regarding Rodríguez’s
audience – that his collection was produced for a foreign gaze – is challenged here;
the Colección general de los trages de España is analysed instead as an internal and
self-aware construction of Spanish ‘types’ for Spanish viewers. The reception of
Rodríguez’s work outside of Spain is thus recontextualised as consumption by a
secondary audience.
Ultimately, this thesis defines the role and function of costume books in Spain at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. It distinguishes them as a distinct genre within
Spanish art, and de-anonymises the visual legacy of their creators. | en |
