Lecture: Mirva Saukkola – Exotic, Sensual Spain: How Art Created the Myth of the Spanish Woman

The Spanish woman is portrayed as beautiful and fatal in both 19th-century art and contemporary souvenir aesthetics. This image derives from flamenco, and from the French composer Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen. What factors have contributed to it becoming a stereotype?

The lecture shows how the Spanish woman has been depicted in art since the 19th century, and how, for example, folk costumes, lace and jewellery have been immortalized on canvas. Besides visual art, we also pay visits to other art disciplines, focusing on Prosper Mérimée’s story of Carmen and the opera by Georges Bizet based on it, as well as on how the story has lived on – for example, in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s film The Barefoot Contessa (1954).

Mirva Saukkola, PhD, is Editor in Chief of Antiikki & Design magazine. She has written and lectured widely on the history of fashion.

Duration: 1 hour.
80 seats.
With a museum ticket.
The presentation is held in Finnish.

No advance registration. Please sign up at the service desk when arriving in the museum.