Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

In the autumn of 1623, a Portuguese muleteer was arrested at the outskirts of Cáceres for transporting a fall-front cabinet made of nonEuropean Wood. This event was the beginning of a long lawsuit which involved merchants, agents, local authorities, a carpenter and several witnesses. This case reveals how historical complexity is embedded in  allfront cabinets. Indeed, when seen as consumption objects, fall-front cabinets reveal much more than just their moment of production or their relation to the final consumer. In this story, the fall-front cabinet is an agent who establishes social relationships, consolidates transnational networks and generates conflicts. This article aims at demonstrating that a study focused on a fall-front cabinet can reveal a broad network of social relations. These can connect spaces as diverse as Portuguese America, the Castilian court or the Tagus River. Moreover, this case study offers the opportunity to unveil the diversity of interpretations and meanings that were created when this piece of furniture came across with an individual on its way.

The  Military  Order  of  Santiagopromoted  the  feminine  elementfrom its foundation. Unlike other military orders, their knights could marry and start a family, creating dynasties within the Order. Its members, very close to the Crown, held the highest positions within the militia and their domains for  several  generations and  therefore, thosefamilies,  to  immortalize  their name and associate it with the communities they served, donated goods and objects thatreflected his greatness and the greatness of their families. In a journey through the texts of pastoral visitsconductedin Order of Santiago’s territory from the end of the 15th century to the first half of the 16th century, we  will  try  to  demonstrate  the  importance  of  women  in  these  donations  by analyzing the nature of the donated objects and the reasons of their choice.

The  furniture’s  analysis  of  the  Havana  nineteenth-century’shigh society  houses, endeavors,through  this  expression  of  material  culture,  the rapprochementto everyday’s  lifedynamics.  Some linkswere  proposed between  these  furniture  and  contextual  aspects,  also  there  were  stablished some  guidelines  about  the  furniture’s  behavior  and  was  commented  the connection  between  these  items  and  the  customs  of  the period.  Travel literature, current studies and the pieces that are in exhibition in the period rooms of Havana’s museums,have contributed on shaping the development of furniture in different domestic contexts. There can be verified several kinds of   furniture,   materials,   stylistic   and   cultural   influences   and   different techniques.  At  the  same  time, there  was an  important  development  of production  and  selling  companies  of  this  pieces,  that  show  a  solid  and prosperity stage at the furnishings

At the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exhibition, Felix Kohn, director of the Vienna bentwood furniture factory Jacob & Josef Kohn, gave to the Queen regnant Maria Cristina the throne of the Hungarian gallery shown at the Palace of industry. The brief recreates the specific episode of the meeting between the Queen and Felix Kohn, both from Moravia, the day of the inauguration, and makes a detailed explanation in context of the main characteristics of the throne, exhibited in the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Modernity is a historical period marked by the economic, political and cultural hegemony of western civilization. In this context, the confrontation with  the  otherness  and  valuation  of  one's  own  andother  people's  material culture has been affected by the establishment of asymmetric relationships. We question in this article the purist dogmatism that promotes denigration of  the  ornament  after  the  proclamation  of  its  uselessness.  The  decorative patterns that extend through the wall hangings, furniture, books or fabrics, have  been  linked,  over  time  and  in  different  geographical  areas,  with apotropaic effects. Despite the protection, warning, deterrence or fascination functions  that  these  devices  seem  tohave  performed,  their  use  has  just become a sign of cultural inferiority.

Within    the    panorama    of    Andalusian    industrial    design    of contemporary furniture there is a keyfigure, often unknown, which is that of  the  architect,  designer  and  sculptor  Juan  Cuenca,  who  was  one  of  the members  of Equipo57.  Among  all  his  objects  designed  so  far,  the Liceo armchair  (1999)  masterfully  summarizes  the  author's  design ideas.These arefundamentally   based   on   the   classic   principles   of the Bauhasian industrialization, the use of regulatory paths in the service of ergonomics as well  as  the  double  treatment  of  its  furniture  pieces  at  the  same  time  as sculptures and as design objects.The Liceoarmchair works, therefore, as a chair-manifest of its author's design philosophy and appears as a milestone in Andalusian contemporary design.

Review of the book Escritorios y bargueños españoles, published in 2018 by Mª Paz Aguiló Alonso.

Examining the concepts and ideas we have of objects and common goods such as the Monobloc chairs, or of mayor and globalized cultural events like the Art Biennale, they reveal their cultural and economic impact, especially because of their artistic and often political statements. In doing so, they expose a bit more about our contemporary society, our cultural heritage and sometimes give us advise or evoke ideas for the future. Furthermore, thinking about the artistic coverage, manipulating and masking of the Monobloc, these observations can show us our own attitudes towards everyday objects and common goods as well as helping us discover modernity. Finally, we can experience the Art Biennale in Venice more deeply, behind its vast different ranges of changing characteristics and faces throughout modern history. 

Nikolaus Pevsner’s Pioneers of Modern Movement is considered the foundational text of two new historical fields, the history of modern architecture and the history of design. This contribution, nevertheless, discusses this text in the context of art-historical discipline. Pevsner himself namely understood his work as a complement to Kunstgeschichte: by defining the ‘Modern Movement’ in established art-historical terms and also by discussing not only architecture but attempting to define the style and the worldview expressed in it for the whole period and all of visual arts. Specifically, this contribution is interested in the place that Pevsner allocated to the design within his art-historical edifice, since inclusion of objects of everyday use within an art-historical study was not (and still is not) usual. For Pevsner, on the contrary, design (linked to architecture) turns out to be a key component of his narrative, even if not for aesthetic but rather for moral or social reasons.

This article aims to discuss the specificity of three author’s projects to elaborate about the partnership between traditional economic sectors and design as added value regarding cultural heritage as framework for sustainable solutions. The scenery of intervention is the refurbishment of a single-family home that motivated the creation of three types of products: an entrance door, an armed chair with a footstool and eight carpets. The three projects started from hand drawings of one of the architects of the architecture office in charge of the assignment. In this text it is considered the concept of home and surrounding objects from an organic, human centred perspective, recalling, among others, essays as Bauen Wohnen Denken from Martin Heidegger and Rationalism and Man from Alvar Aalto as key texts that give the note of this text’s approach. The analysis goes further by addressing the product’s development process through the immersive collaboration of the architects with the client, technicians, workers of the chosen factories, namely metalwork, carpentry/carving and hand knotting. Finally, in this article it is to remark that these projects are a significant example to illustrate the partnership that can be experienced between arts & crafts production and design proposals. In effect, the craft industry that remains in the market with competitive parameters is the one that adapts techniques and skills of the tradition and innovates in concepts.