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The Roberta and Richard Huber Colloquium with Xavier F. Salomon

Title: Luigi Valadier in Nicaragua
with Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator at the Frick Collection

In January 1767, the silversmith Luigi Valadier (1726–1785) exhibited—in his workshop on Via del Babuino near the Spanish Steps in Rome—a monumental monstrance “destined for a principal church of Mexico, that is in the Indies of Spain”. The following year, on 17 September 1768, Valadier exhibited in his workshop more objects destined for that same “principal church” in Mexico: candlesticks, chalices and three altar lecterns. These works of art have been considered lost and have remained untraced for more than two hundred and fifty years. This lecture presents, for the first time, the unexpected finding of thirty objects by Valadier in the Cathedral of León in Nicaragua, where they have remained—unrecognized—since the eighteenth century, and will present new information as to how the objects travelled from Europe to Central America.

Feb 22, 2023 06:30 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)