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the Royal Monastery of Pedralbes

The Monastery of Pedralbes to explore female furniture from the 16th and 17th centuries

The exhibition Women Also Sit showcases everyday items donated by a number of museums and private collections.

On 10 October, the Royal Monastery of Pedralbes will inaugurate a new temporary exhibition that is scheduled to run until February 2018. It is titled Women also sit. Female furniture and spaces of the 16th and 17th centuries, and it includes both objects from the monastery’s own archives and items lent by private collections and museums. The exhibition aims to focus on the furniture and everyday items used by the women of that time in order to provide an insight into their roles, duties and occupations.

The core of the exhibition is, as its title suggests, the seat or chair. The women of the time, who were held to be subservient to men, used to sit in lower chairs, being therefore obliged to literally look up to their male family members. The exhibition also argues for the idea that the convents of the day, at least in the case of Pedralbes, were spaces of relative freedom and growth for their all female populations.

The exhibition contains a number of items that have never been exhibited before, including an oil painting by Francisco de Zurbarán and a selection of Renaissance and Baroque era jewellery and gold and silver ware.

Additional information is available at the following link.

Publication date: Friday, 06 October 2017
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