Symposium: The Invention of Glory

Distinguished panelists from across the country will contextualize the Museum's exhibition on 14th century tapestries.  

9:00-9:30 a.m.     Coffee and Pastries

9:30-9:45 a.m.     Introduction, Alexander Jarman

9:45-10:15 a.m.   The Design and Installation of the Pastrana Tapestries Exhibition, Dr. John Marciari

10:15-10:30 a.m. Break

10:30-11:30 a.m. Portraits of Power, Dr. Barbara von Barghahn

11:30-12:15 p.m. San Diego's 'Pillage' Tapestry and the Art of War, Will Chandler

12:15-12:30 p.m. Questions and Answers Session

Alexander Jarman is the Public Programs Manager at The San Diego Museum of Art.

Dr. John Marciari is the Curator of European Art and the Head of Provenance Research at The San Diego Museum of Art.  He is responsible for the planning and implementation of the iteration of The Invention of Glory at the Museum. 

Dr. Barbara von Barghahn is Professor of Art History at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Since receiving her Ph.D at New York University, Dr. von Barghahn has been a prolific writer, contributing texts to many important art historical publications and authoring multiple books, including  Age of Gold, Age of Iron: Renaissance Spain and Symbols of Monarchy. Her talk is titled "Defining the Perfect Prince in an Age of Chivalry: Portugal's Moroccan Campaign and the Pastrana Tapestries." 

From Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece commemorating the 1415 conquest of Ceuta to Flemish tapestries that documented the 1471 taking of Tangier, this lecture will consider: “portraits of power” in the context of chivalric ideals; the imaging of triumph in the clash of arms; the palatine display of tapestries as a visual chronicle of a contemporary epic; and the fame accrued from Portuguese expeditions to North Africa which initiated an age of navigation and a transformation of the medieval world picture.

Will Chandler Will Chandler is an Independent Curator and the owner of Chandler Art Consulting Services. A former Curator of Decorative Arts at SDMA, in the 1980s he directed the conservation of the Museum's early 18th Century "Pillage" tapestry from the "Second Art of War Series." His presentation will illustrate the circumstances and techniques that led to this tapestry's creation, its expressions of continuity with the Pastrana Tapestries and of the artistic changes that followed them, and the variety of ways in which it has been interpreted since its arrival in San Diego in 1926.