The Ministry of Culture, through the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain (IPCE), has presented today at the School of Historical Heritage of Nájera (La Rioja) the temporary exhibition ‘Conde de Polentinos. Stereoscopic photographs’. The exhibition, composed of a selection of images that portray the society and cultural heritage of the beginning of the 20th century in Spain through stereoscopic technique, is part of the photographic archive –composed of about ten thousand glass squares to the gelatinobromide, made between 1894 and 1931 approximately - donated in 2008 by the family of the aristocrat Aurelio de Colmenares y Orgaz, to the IPCE photo library.
The exhibition represents a valuable incursion into the historical importance of stereoscopic technique, which changed the way of conceiving and popularizing photography, as well as capturing the social, cultural and technological transformation that our country experienced during the last century. “In addition to documenting the material heritage, Polentinos provides an invaluable testimony of Spanish modernity,” said Susana Alcalá, deputy director general of the IPCE, during the inauguration ceremony.
The exhibition is structured around five themes that make up the photographic production of the Count of Polentinos:
- Stereoscopic photography: the sample highlights the importance and magnitude of the diffusion of stereoscopy, a photographic technique based on the binocular principle of presenting slightly different images for each eye, allowing the brain to combine them to perceive depth and volume. Its use became popular at the end of the 19th century and constituted a tool for disseminating knowledge as well as entertainment for the bourgeoisie of the time.
- Social and family life: through the scenes of the family, social and cultural life of the Count of Polentinos, we can know moments of leisure representative of the Spanish aristocracy of the beginning of the 20th century.
- Heritage and landscape: these images show the interest of the author for the cultural and natural heritage of Spain, as well as the widespread movement for its protection and conservation that emerged at that time.
- People and customs: where the Count of Polentinos displayed balanced and beautiful formal compositions that come to remember pictorial compositions and that portray various areas of popular culture and daily life.
- La Rioja: there is a part of the exhibition dedicated to localities of this region that the author collected in his activity with the Spanish Society of Excursions.
About the photographer and his legacy
Aurelio de Colmenares y Orgaz, VII Count of Polentinos (Madrid, 1873-1947), was an aristocrat cultivated and fully integrated into the cultural sphere of the early 20th century who developed a deep interest in photography from his youth. He traveled accompanied by his camera, usually stereoscopic, on visits and cultural excursions, and also photographed private scenes of his social and family life.
This photographic archive entered the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain (IPCE) on November 5, 2008 for the donation of his grandson Don Ignacio de Colmenares Gómez-Acebo, Count of the Posadas. Composed of about ten thousand glass plates to the gelatinobromide, mainly stereoscopic, made between 1894 and 1931 approximately, the images have a varied theme that denotes the great interest of its author for the history of art and for photography itself. Maintained until his donation in the private sphere of his family, he is currently digitized and is accessible to the public through the web catalog of the IPCE photo library. Although the selection of photographs that make up this sample are stereoscopic images, to facilitate its viewing one of the two images of the original negative has been selected.
An exhibition program with photographic backgrounds
With this exhibition, the IPCE inaugurates an exhibition program that aims to publicize the documentary and artistic value of its vast photographic funds, and with which it intends to decentralize some of its activities by doing so in its headquarters in Nájera, located in the Monastery of Santa María la Real, which has been home for 16 years to the School of Historical Heritage.
This objective of making knowledge and heritage funds available to all audiences, in close collaboration with regional and local administrations, is also reflected in the annual training programme offered since its inception by the IPCE in Nájera, already consolidated as a reference in training specialists in the protection, conservation and management of cultural property.
This afternoon there will also be two guided tours of the exhibition by its curators, Isabel Argerich, Guillermo Enríquez de Salamanca and María Pérez Díaz.
The exhibition ‘Conde de Polentinos. Stereoscopic photographs’ can be visited free of charge at the School of Historical Heritage of Nájera from today until January 2025.