Gállego Serrano, Julián

Full Name: Gállego y Aragón, Julián

Gender: male

Date Born: 17 January 1919

Date Died: 21 May 2006

Place Born: Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain

Place Died: Madrid, Spain

Home Country/ies: Spain

Subject Area(s): painting (visual works)

Institution(s): Complutense University of Madrid

Overview

Spanish art historian and university professor. Originally from the capital of Aragon, Gállego developed an affinity for the law, which led him to study law. Later, though, he discovered that the study of art was where he would apply his skills. Gállego received his doctorate in Art History at the Sorbonne University, Paris. There, he would meet Pablo Picasso, whose work inspired various texts (Picasso: suite Vollard, De Velázquez a Picasso: crónicas de París, 1954-1973). Gállego remained in Paris until 1970. In Spain, he worked as a professor at the Complutense University of Madrid. He was a dedicated scholar and tenacious writer. Gállego considered himself Aragonese, and kept close ties with his native land in personal and professional ways. Many aspects of Aragonese art were covered by Gállego. These findings were published in several magazines and particularly the newspaper Heraldo de Aragón. He returned to Zaragoza, a city in Aragon and his birthplace, on numerous occasions. Gállego took part in numerous courses and conferences there (in addition to participating in various exhibitions, including one in 1992 that was dedicated to Goya). Goya, in turn, was an artist who captivated Gállego (Goya y la caza, Las majas de Goya, L’Univers de Goya). Gállego is thought of as one of the historians to understand Goya best, through his texts and research. Gállego’s participation as a member of the Comité Científico focused on Goya in various exhibitions. This painter and the themes in his work were of greatest interest to Gállego, who devoted many texts to him. Some of his work was also dedicated to the Aragonese sculptor Pablo Serrano (1908-1985), and to the Spanish painter Diego Velásquez (Pablo Serrano, Reflexiones sobre Velázquez, Velázquez en Sevilla). The Zaragoza City Council awarded him the Gold Medal of the City of Zaragoza in 1996. In that same year he received the Medal of Aragon for professional merit from the Government of Aragon. He would later curate a presentation on the life and art of Velázquez at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1969. Moreover, in 1987, Gállego was admitted as an academic of merit at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. He also acted as a member of the Scientific Council of the Prado Museum.

Gállego resonates as an art historian who felt a deep connection with his Aragonese roots, valued cataloging the artistic process (and understanding Goya’s), and wrote with a creative and critical voice (Wifredo). His perspectives as a writer were astute and well-informed; Gállego drew from his own experiences and travels to make meaningful claims about art and life (El arte de la memoria, El cuadro dentro del cuadro). Gállego’s proclivity for writing led to favorable results; in 1951 he received the Amparo Balaguer award for a play he wrote called Fedra. And in 1965, he received the Leopoldo Alas Prize for Spanish Apocrypha. Gállego’s ties as an author are very much linked with the newspaper Heraldo de Aragón, which also linked him to his native land (Wifredo). Gállego was a seasoned traveler and an incredible writer. His efforts to understand Goya also paid off; Gállego’s insights about this artist are apt, important, and exceptional. Gállego saw art as a means for reflection and introspection—he carried this idea with him as a professor, as a historian, and as a person who adored the history of art.

Selected Bibliography

Discursos practicables del nobilísimo arte de la pintura. Madrid, Akal, 1950;
• San Esteban de Abajo. Barcelona, Seix Barral, 1957;
• Le peinture espagnole. Paris, Éditions Pierre Tisné, 1962; Apócrifos españoles. Barcelona, Plaza & Janes, 1971;
• Pintura contemporánea. Navarra, Salvat Editores, 1971;
• Visión y símbolos en la pintura española del siglo de oro. Madrid, Aguilar, 1972;
• Velázquez en Sevilla. Sevilla, Diputación Provincial de Sevilla, 1974;
• Zurbarán, 1598-1664. Barcelona, Ediciones Poligrafa, 1976;
• El pintor de artesano a artista. Granada, Universidad de Granada, 1976;
• Pablo Serrano. Madrid, Dirección General del Patrimonio Artístico y Cultural, 1976;
• L’Univers de Goya. Paris, H. Scrépel, 1977;
• El cuadro dentro del cuadro. Madrid, Cátedra, 1978;
• Autorretratos de Goya. Zaragoza, Caja de Ahorros de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja, 1978;
• Zaragoza en las artes y en las letras. Zaragoza, Librería General, 1979;
• Sempere. Madrid, Ediciones Theo, 1980;
• Las majas de Goya. Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 1982;
• Diego Velázquez. Barcelona, Anthropos, 1983;
• Arte abstracto español en la colección de la Fundación Juan March. Madrid, La Fundación, 1983;
• Goya y la caza. Madrid, El Viso, 1985;
• Los bocetos y las pinturas murales del Pilar. Aragón, Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada, 1987;
• Velázquez. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1989;
• Arte europeo y norteamericano del siglo XIX. Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1990;
• Reflexiones sobre Velázquez. Madrid, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 1992;
• Siete pintores españoles de la Escuela de París: María Blanchard, Juan de Echevarría, Juan Gris, Francisco Iturrino, Joan Miró, Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Daniel Vásquez Díaz. Madrid, Atenea Comunicación y Mecenazgo, 1993;
• Goya: the complete etchings and lithographs. Munich; New York, Prestel, 1995;
• El pintor, de artesano a artista. Granada, Diputación Provincial de Granada, 1995;
• Picasso: suite Vollard. Madrid, Editorial de Arte y Ciencia, Fundación Juan March, 1996;
• Artistas pintados: retratos de pintores y escultores del siglo 19 en el Museo del Prado. Madrid, Museo del Prado, Ministerio de Cultura, Ambit Servicios Editoriales, 1997;
• Pinturas de cuatro siglos. Madrid, Caylus, 1997;
• El arte de la memoria. Zaragoza, Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 1999;
• De Velázquez a Picasso: crónicas de París, 1954-1973. Zaragoza, IberCaja, 2002;
• La democracia en tiempos de tragedia: asamblea ateniense y subjetividad política. Buenos Aires, Miño y Davila, 2003.

Sources

• Cabañas Bravo, Miguel. El arte español del siglo XX: su perspectiva al final del milenio; actas de las X jornadas de arte dedicadas al prof. Don Julián Gallego. Madrid Inst. de Historia, Dep. de Historia del Arte 2001;
• Museo del Prado. Homenaje a Julián Gállego. Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2003;
• Reyero Hermosilla, Carlos. Por debajo de las Torres Blancas: en memoria de Julián Gállego (1919-2006). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2006;
• Perez Gracia, Cesar. Julian Gallego o el entusiasmo velazqueño. Madrid: Claves de Razón Práctica, No. 168, 2006;
• Suárez Quevedo, Diego. A Julián Gállego Serrano, “in memoriam.” Madrid: Anales de historia del arte, 2006;
• Hacia un corpus bibliográfico de Julián Gállego. Madrid: Anales de historia del arte, 2008;
• Rincón García, Wifredo. Julián Gállego y Aragón. Madrid: Anales de historia del arte, 2008;
• Calvo Serraller, Francisco. Elogio de Julián Gállego. Madrid: Anales de historia del arte, 2008;
• Molina Ibañez, Mercedes. Firmissima convelli non posse: homenaje al profesor Julián Gállego. Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2008;
• Cámara, Alicia. La ciudad en la Literatura del Siglo de Oro. Ediciones Complutense, 2008;
• Borrás Gualis, M. Gonzalo; Sobre la condición social de los maestros de obras moros aragoneses. Ediciones Complutense, 2008.

Contributors: Sophia Cetina