Alvaro Pascual UVa
Portrait, power, Modern Age, painting, drawing, sculpture

Álvaro Pascual Chenel

AREA RESEARCH GROUP INSTITUTE
History of Art Art, Power and Society in the Modern Age
My research career

I was awarded an extraordinary prize for my degree. FPU scholarship holder in the area of Art History in the Department of History and Philosophy at the University of Alcalá. I carried out pre-doctoral research stays at the Vatican Hertzian and Apostolic Library; the Institut für Geschichte of the University of Vienna; the Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA) in Paris and the Dipartimento delle Arti Visive of the University of Bologna. I obtained a scholarship from the Real Colegio de España in Bologna and the European Doctorate of Research in Art History from the Università di Bologna. I was also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome. Subsequently Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Alcalá. PhD Contracted JAE-Doc at the CSIC. Visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Corresponding Academician, Real Academia de Nobles y Bellas Artes de San Luis de Zaragoza. Postdoctoral researcher, University of Valladolid. Assistant Professor at the University of Malaga and Complutense University of Madrid. Until obtaining the contract as Senior Distinguished Researcher at the University of Valladolid where I develop my research and teaching activity.

My research

My main lines of research are oriented towards the study of the work of art as a historical-visual document, with particular attention to the uses and functions of the state portrait and the construction and image of power in the Modern Age. It is in this field that I have published numerous studies on portraiture during the reign of Charles II. My main lines of research also include seventeenth-century court art in painting, sculpture and drawing. In this respect, my dedication to the study of the work of Vicente Carducho and seventeenth-century Madrid drawing in general stands out.

The study of artistic phenomena from methodological approaches in relation to the specific historical circumstances in which they were created. Beyond the strictly visual, the image, the artistic work, in short, is a historical document that makes sense within a specific period and society, the final addressee of such images. Therefore, the method of study must be adapted to the peculiarity of this visual document and not be satisfied only with the formal and stylistic aspects of art, but must transcend appearance to seek beyond the mere artistic object, a satisfactory approach to the deep reasons that motivated its creation, as well as the functions, uses or meanings that were given to it, thus inserting it in the historical situation of which it is a product, reflection and expression.