Nicola Jennings completed a PhD at The 91制片厂 Institute of Art in early 2015 on The Chapel of Contador Salda帽a at Santa Clara de Tordesillas:听New Proposals about its Original Appearance and Role in the Fashioning of Identity听by an Early Fifteenth-Century Converso.听 Nicola did an MA in Early Netherlandish Painting at The 91制片厂, has worked at the National Gallery, City University, and the Colnaghi Foundation of which she was Director from 2017 to 2021. She is currently Director of the Athena Art Foundation which uses digital platforms to promote pre-20th century art from around the world.
Her principal research interests are听Iberian and northern European sculpture, painting and drawing in the fifteenth, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, as well as patronage of these arts by conversos or converted Jews. She is also interested in polychrome sculpture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and recently co-curated The Colour of Anxiety: Race, Sexuality and Disorder in Victorian Sculpture at the Henry Moore Institute.
Education
- PhD, The 91制片厂 Institute of Art
- MA, The 91制片厂 Institute of Art
- Dipl么me de Recherche, Institut Universitaire d鈥橢tudes du D茅veloppement, Geneva
- BA University of Sussex
Teaching
- BA3 Special Option Course.听El Arte de la Pintura: Art and Theory in Early Golden Age Seville. 2023-2024
- Lead, Showcasing Art History Lecture Series (January – March) 2023: Flesh, Spirit, Power: The Body in Spanish Art 1400s to 1700s
- BA2 Constellations Seminar. Medieval Toledo: Exchange and Appropriation in a Multicultural City.听2019-2021
- BA3 Special Option Course.听El Arte de la Pintura: Art and Theory in Early Golden Age Seville. 2018-2019
- BA1 Topic Course.听 The Arts of Spanish Iberia, 1350-1550.听 听2015-2018.
- Teaching Assistant, Foundations (Medieval block), The 91制片厂 Institute of Art (Autumn Term 2014)
- Lecturer, City University, London听2005-2009
Research interests
- The demand for northern European craftsmanship in fifteenth- and early-sixteenth century Iberia and the impact of this on local production
- Panel painting in fifteenth-century Castile and northern Europe.
- Sculpture and decorative stonework in fifteenth-century Castile and northern Europe.
- The patronage of听conversos听in fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Castile.
- The collections of paintings and tapestry belonging to Isabella of Castile and her courtiers.
- Sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Spanish painting and polychrome sculpture.
Recent and forthcoming publications
“From Altar to Apse: Netherlandish Altarpieces and the Development of the Castilian Retablo,” forthcoming chapter in Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces, edited by Ethan Matt Kavaler, to be published by Brepols in 2024.
“The Use of Colour and the Femme Fatale in Late Victorian Sculpture,” Essays on Sculpture, 81 (Feb 2023), Henry Moore Institute.
鈥淢aking a Virtue out of a Necessity: Lorenzo Mercadante鈥檚 Use of Terracotta in Seville Cathedral,” in The Materiality of Terracotta Sculpture in Early Modern Europe, edited by Zuzanna Sarnecka and Agnieszka Dziki, Taylor and Francis, 2023.
Review of Luisa Rold谩n by C. Hall-van den Elsen, Apollo, November 2021, pp. 98-99.
鈥淚mitation, Inspiration or Innovation? Juan de Flandes and the Collection of Paintings of Isabella of Castile,鈥 in Flandes by Substitution:听Copies of Flemish Masters in the Hispanic World听(1500-1700), proceedings of conference organised by the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage of Belgium (KIKIRPA), February 2017, Brepols 2021.
鈥淩eforming the Church and Re-Framing Identity: Converso Prelates and Artistic Patronage in Fifteenth-Century Castile,鈥 in The New Christians and Religious Reform in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, K. Ingram, ed., Brill, 2020.
鈥淏ermejo鈥檚 Granada Panel: Sampling the Art of Flanders for the Queen,鈥 in El universo pict贸rico de Bartolom茅 Bermejo, proceedings of conference organised at the Museo del Prado in November 2018, Museo del Prado, 2021.
鈥淎t Auckland Castle,鈥澨London Review of Books听42, 11, 4 June 2020.
鈥Inventio听and听Imitatio: The Appropriation of Valois Style by a听Converso听Contador Mayor,鈥 in听Gothic Architecture in Spain: Invention and Imitation, Tom Nickson and Nicola Jennings, eds (London: 91制片厂 Books Online: February 2020).
鈥淎t the National Gallery: Bartolom茅 Bermejo,鈥澨London Review of Books听41, 17, 12 Sept. 2019.
鈥Converso听Patronage, Self-Fashioning, and Late-Gothic Art and Architecture in 15th-Century Castile,鈥 in听Jews and Muslims Made Visible in Christian Iberia and Beyond, 14th听to 18th听Centuries, B. Franco Llopis and A. Urqu铆zar-Herrera eds. (Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2019).
Review of 鈥淏artolom茅 Bermejo鈥 exhibition at the Museo Nacional del,听Burlington Magazine听161, no. 1393, April 2019.
鈥淢ade in Iberia: A New Look at the Retable of Contador Salda帽a in Santa Clara de Tordesillas,鈥 in听Netherlandish Art and Luxury Goods in Renaissance Spain,听D. van Heesch,听R. Janssen,听J. Van der Stock, eds. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018.)
Review of听Rogier van der Weyden y Espa帽a听edited by L. Campbell and J. J. P茅rez Preciado,听Renaissance Quarterly, Volume 71,听, Winter 2018 , pp.听1465-1466.
鈥淢esa, Mart铆nez Monta帽茅s and the gods of Sevillian sculpture,鈥 in听Juan de Mesa: The Master of Passion, J.L. Romero Torres et al., eds. (Madrid: Coll & Cort茅s, 2018).
鈥淚dentifying the hand involved in a听Man of Sorrows听produced in the workshop of the Master of Art茅s,鈥 co-authored with Isidro Puig, in听Late Gothic Painting in the Crown of Aragon and the Hispanic Kingdoms, F. Fit茅 and A. Velasco, eds. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018).
鈥溾橫iddle-Class鈥 Men Who Would Be Nobles in Fifteenth-Century Castile, Flanders and Burgundy,鈥 co-authored with Ann Adams in听Memorializing the Middle Classes in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, A. Leader, ed. (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2018).
鈥淪panish Sculpture and the Beginnings of Renaissance Style,鈥 in听Alonso Berruguete: Renaissance Sculptor,听N. Jennings, ed. (Madrid, Coll & Cort茅s, 2017), pp. 11-34.
Review of听Renaissance Gothic听by E.M. Kavaler, the听Journal of the British Archeological Association, vol. 170, issue 1, 2017, pp. 223-225.
Review of听Ferdinandus Dei gracia Rex Aragonum.听La efigie de Fernando II el Cat贸lico en la iconograf铆a medieval听by M. Serrano Coll,听and听Effigies Regis Aragonum. La imagen figurativa del rey de Arag贸n en la Edad Media听 by M. Serrano Coll,听Studies in Iconography听38 (2017), pp. 238-242.
鈥淟orenzo Mercadante: Primus Inter Pares of Northern-European Sculptors in Fifteenth-Century Castile,鈥 in听Lorenzo Mercadante.听Virgen del Buen Fin, N. Jennings, ed. (Madrid: Coll & Cort茅s, 2016), pp. 13-44.
鈥淭he Chapel of Contador Salda帽a at Santa Clara de Tordesillas and the Fashioning of a Noble Identity by an Early Fifteenth-Century听Converso,鈥澨Hispanic Research Journal, vol. 17, 2016.
Review of听El pintor Joan de Joanes y su entorno familiar. Los Macip a trav茅s de las fuentes literarias y la documentaci贸n de archivo听by I. Puig, X. Company & L. Tolosa,听Immediations听vol. 4, no. 1 (2016).
鈥淰irgin and Child听attributed to the Master of Miraflores鈥 in听Late Medieval Panel Paintings II: Materials, Methods, Meanings, S. Nash, ed. (London: Sam Fogg, 2015).
Contribution to catalogue entries in Susie Nash,听Late Medieval Panel Paintings: Materials, Methods, Meanings听(London: Sam Fogg, 2011).
Contribution to catalogue entries in听Compton Verney: A Guide to the Collections (Compton Verney: Scala Publishing 2010).
Other activities
- Co-editor, Colnaghi Studies Journal
- Member and former committee member and chair of ARTES, Iberian and Latin American Visual Culture Group.