Carmen Fracchia
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Trained originally in Italian art history of the early modern period, I am a specialist in Hispanic Art History, with particular interest in relations between the Spanish visual form of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and issues of 'blackness', 'slavery' and 'freedom', 'human diversity' and 'race', and, religion, and, intellectual thought in the formation of the Iberian Empire.
My current research focuses on:
- the overlooked area of the complex specificity of slave subjectivity in the visual form
- the visual and cultural contribution made by Afro-Spanish enslaved and freed artists between 1480-1700 in Hapsburg Spain.
- the case of the Afro-Spanish painter Juan de Pareja (c.1606-1670), enslaved assistant to Diego Velazquez in the Spanish Court.
Highlights
30th September 2021. Invited to give a 50-minute talk in Spanish about The Image of Black Africans in Golden Age Spain, 2pm-4pm (London time), in Facebook-Live. Initially aimed as a class to UG History students for the module 'New Spain 16th-17th Centuries', Dept. of History, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM- ACATLÁN) is now open to the general public
27 November 2021, 4.30pm-5.30pm. Keynote Picturing the African Presence in Early Modern Spain.The Golden Age Research Symposium, 26-28 November 2021, University College Cork. Programme:
Representing hidden histories on stage and screen: Two Workshops with The CATALINA Film Team (21 & 28 Sep)
When: 21 September 2021, 18:00 — 20:00
Venue: OnlineThis first workshop aims to provide you with insights into the process of how the Untold Arts team translates hidden histories into theatre and film and introduce you to our latest project, about an Arab woman privy to some of the Tudor royals’ greatest secrets. This will include talks and discussions with the creative team (from the UK & USA) including:
6.00pm: Introduction – Professor Luciana Martins
6.05pm: The Catalina Project – Nadia Nadif (Actress and Producer)
6.35pm: The World of Catalina – Professor Carmen Fracchia
6.55pm: How the history has informed our process as film makers – Fawaz Al-Matrouk (Director), Leah Curtis (Music Composer)
7.45pm: Preparing Workshop 2 – Nadia Nadif (28 September)
NEW BOOK
REVIEWS
"Fracchia’s groundbreaking book, rich in untapped archival sources, lays a foundation for a new understanding of racial blackness and its representation in the Iberian-Atlantic world. Fracchia integrates diasporic African cultural production and its reception with unprecedented depth and clarity—essential reading for anyone interested in race, aesthetics, art history, cultural studies, Atlantic history, and black studies.”- Jesse McCarthy, Harvard University. Author of Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul?, 2021.
"A wonderful, scholarly, imaginative and necessary work [...] It profoundly develops our understanding of the semiotic construction of the black body [...] The work on the miracle of the black leg is extraordinary. [...] It has finally done justice to Velazquez, Juan de Pareja [...]This book has made available a hitherto neglected mini archive within the study of the visual cultures generated by Atlantic slavery." - Marcus Wood, University of Sussex. Author of The Black Butterfly: Brazilian Slavery and The Literary Imagination, 2020.
"Almost every page has some new, revealing insights....I whole heartedly recommended this book, unreservedly." - Michael Ohajuru, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, 2019.
For some reason, Channel 5 abruptly ended the series 'Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr' with no warning. On July 2nd, Marr announced at the end of his episode, dedicated to Picasso, that next time, he and his team of experts (including myself), would discuss Diego Velázquez and his painting 'Rokeby Venus', at the National Gallery London. The broadcast was due on Friday 9th July.
Qualifications
- PhD (London), University College London, 1996
- Laurea (Siena), University of Siena, Italy, 1984
Web profiles
Administrative responsibilities
- Co-Director-Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies-CILAVS
- Chair, BA Sub-Board of Examiners, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
- Disability Lead for Cultures and Languages
- Tutor, under 18-applicants
- Tutor, BA SPLAS
Visiting posts
- Visiting Professor , University of Pittsburgh, USA, 09-2017 to 09-2017
- Visiting Professor, University of Chicago, USA, 02-2017 to 02-2017
- Visiting Professor, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico, 10-2015 to 10-2015
- Visiting Professor, University Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), Madrid, Spain, 04-2011 to 04-2011
- Visiting Professor, University of Granada, Spain, 10-2009 to 07-2013
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Research
Research
Research interests
- visual representation of blackness in early modern Spain
- visual representation of the articulation of human diversity, subjectivity, agency, self-representation, religion, slavery, freedom
- visual representation of hybridity, and, 'race' in the early modern Hispanic period
Research overview
My pioneering research about the visual representation of blackness and slavery in the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile in early modern Spain (15th C-17th C) is being:
- guided by archival study of visual and textual sources
- strengthened by
(a) three collaborative networks about Slavery and Abolitionism with the University of Granada (Spain), sponsored by the Spanish government
(b) appointments as visiting scholar at the:
- Department of Social Anthropology of the University of Granada (Spain)
- Department of Media Studies at the University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid (Spain)
- Department of Philosophy and Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico City)
- the Department of History of Art and Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago (USA)
- Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh (USA).
Research Centres and Institutes
- Co-Director, Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS)
- member, Medieval and Early Modern Worlds
Research clusters and groups
- invited member , CA18129 - Islamic Legacy: Narratives East, West, South, North of the Mediterranean (1350-1750)
Post doctoral staff
- Prof Borja Franco Llopis
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
Current doctoral researchers
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ANNE BIGGS
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HILARY FUREY
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RAQUEL VILLAR-PEREZ
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TREVOR WORNHAM
Doctoral alumni
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RICHARD TILBURY
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MAIRI MACDONALD
Teaching
Teaching modules
- Power and Control in Spanish Golden Age Art (ARCL010S5)
- Connecting the Arts (AREN126S5)
- Introduction to Hispanic Studies (ARIB136S4)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Fracchia, Carmen and Macartney, H. (2012) The fall into oblivion of the works of the slave painter Juan de Pareja. Art In Translation 4 (2), pp. 163-184. ISSN 1756-1310.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2009) La problematización del blanqueamiento visual del cuerpo africano en la España imperial y en nueva España. Revista Chilena de Antropología Visual 14, pp. 67-82. ISSN 0717-876X.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2004) (Lack of) visual representation of black slaves in Spanish golden age painting. Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies 10 (1), pp. 23-34. ISSN 1470-1847.
- Fracchia, Carmen (1999) Gaspar Becerra: a Spaniard in the workshop of Daniele da Volterra. The Sculpture Journal 3, pp. 6-13. ISSN 1366-2724.
- Fracchia, Carmen (1998) El retablo mayor de la Catedral de Astorga. un concurso escultórico en la España del Renacimiento. Archivo Español de Arte 71 (282), pp. 157-165. ISSN 0004-0428.
- Fracchia, Carmen (1998) La herencia italiana de Gaspar Becerra en el retablo mayor de la Catedral de Astorga. Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte 10, pp. 133-151. ISSN 1130-5517.
- Fracchia, Carmen (1983) Documenti della sala del risorgimento del palazzo comunale di Siena. Bullettino senese di Storia Patria 90, pp. 239-248.
Book
- Fracchia, Carmen (2019) Black but human: slavery and visual arts in Hapsburg Spain, 1480-1700. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198767978.
Book Section
- Fracchia, Carmen (2018) Picturing the Afro-Hispanic struggle for freedom in early modern Spain. In: Branche, J. (ed.) Post/Colonialism and the Pursuit of Freedom in the Black Atlantic. Routledge Studies on African and Black Diaspora. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138061477.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2016) The place of African slaves in early modern Spain. In: Spicer, A. and Stevens Crawshaw, J. (eds.) The Problem and Place of the Social Margins. Routledge Studies in Cultural History. Oxford, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138790728.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2014) La mulata, de Velázquez. In: Martín Casares, A. and Periáñez Gómez, R. (eds.) Mujeres esclavas y abolicionistas en la España de los siglos XVI-XIX.. Tiempo Emulado. Historia de América y España. Frankfurt, Germany and Madrid, Spain: Iberoamericana/Vervuert. pp. 17-32. ISBN 9788484897965.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2013) Metamorphosis of the self in early modern Spain: slave portraiture and the case of Juan de Pareja. In: Lugo-Ortiz, A. and Rosenthal, A. (eds.) Slave Portraiture in the Atlantic World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 146-169. ISBN 9781107004399.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2013) Spanish depictions of the miracle of the black leg. In: Zimmerman, K. (ed.) One Leg in the Grave Revisited: The miracle of the transplantation of the black leg by the saints Cosmas and Damian. Eelde, The Netherlands: Barkhuis. pp. 79-91. ISBN 9789491431234.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2012) The urban slave in Spain and New Spain. In: McGrath, E. and Massing, J.M. (eds.) The Slave in European Art From Renaissance Trophy to Abolitionist Emblem. Warburg Institute Colloquia. London, UK: The Warburg Institute. pp. 195-216. ISBN 9781908590435.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2011) Women’s artistic production and their visual representation in early modern Spain. In: Coates, G. and de Ros, X. (eds.) A Companion to Spanish Women’s Studies. Monografías A. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer. pp. 129-142. ISBN 9781855662247.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2010) El esclavo negroafricano en las imágenes españolas de los Santos Cosme y Damián. In: Casares, M.A. and Garcia Barranco, M. (eds.) La esclavitud negroafricana en la historia de España, siglos XVI y XVII. Granada, Spain: Comares. pp. 127-149. ISBN 9788498367744.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2007) Constructing the black slave in early modern Spanish painting. In: Nichols, T. (ed.) Others and Outcasts in Early Modern Europe:Picturing the Social Margins. Abingdon, UK: Ashgate. pp. 179-195. ISBN 9781138254053.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2007) Depicting the Iberian African in new Spain. In: Andrews, J. and Coroleu, A. (eds.) Mexico 1680: Intellectual and Cultural Life at the Apogee of the Barroco de Indias. Bristol, UK: Hiplam. pp. 45-62. ISBN 9780955240638.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2007) El olvido de las obras del esclavo pintor Juan de Pareja. In: Siracusano, G. (ed.) Imágenes perdidas: censura, olvido, descuido. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Centro Argentino de Investigadores de Arte. pp. 69-82. ISBN 9789879664445.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2005) Representación de la esclavitud negra en la España imperial y la problematización del par 'original-copia'. In: Siracusano, G. (ed.) Original-Copia…Original?. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Centro Argentino de Investigadores de Arte. pp. 269-279.
- Fracchia, Carmen (2000) Cristofano dell' altissimo. In: Turner, J. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Italian Renaissance and Mannerist Art. ISBN 9780333760949.
- Fracchia, Carmen (1996) Cristofano dell' Altissimo. In: The Macmillan Dictionary of Art. London, UK: Macmillan.
Conference Item
- Fracchia, Carmen (2015) The impact of the African presence in early modern Spanish portraiture. Renaissance Society of America, 61st Annual Meeting - Early Modern Hybridity and Globalization: Artistic and Architectural Exchange in the Iberian World, 2015, Berlin, Germany
- Fracchia, Carmen (2013) Velázquez and the case of his slave-painter Juan de Pareja. Velázquez and the case of his slave-painter Juan de Pareja, 2013, St Dunstan’s College, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2013) Whitening the African body in early modern Spain. Art in Translation: Translating Cultures in the Hispanic World, 2013, University of Edinburgh, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2013) The visual representation of Afro-Hispanic slaves in early modern Spain. Literature, Ideas and Society Seminars: Culture and Commodity, 2013, The Warburg Institute, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2012) La metamorfosis de Juan de Pareja. Esclavitud, mestizaje y abolicionismo en el mundo hispánico, 2012, Horizontes Socio-culturales, University of Granada, Spain
- Fracchia, Carmen (2012) Slavery and slaves in early modern Spanish visual culture. On the Margins? Rethinking the Problem and Place of ‘Outsiders’ 1400-1800, 2012, St Anne’s College, Oxford, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2012) Slavery and visual culture in imperial Spain. European History 1500-1800 Seminar, 2012, University of London and Institute of Historical Research, University of London, Senate House, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2012) The emergence of early modern slavery and the problematization of whiteness in the visual form in imperial Spain. Old and New Ethnicities: Conflicts and Communities, 2012, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2011) Afro-hispanos en la pintura de Velázquez: la mulata y Juan de Pareja. 3rd Internacional Congress of Afroeurope@ns, Afroeurope@s: Culturas e Identidades’, 2011, University of Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain
- Fracchia, Carmen (2011) Slave subjectivity in imperial Spain. Representations of Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2011, Southern Historical Association, Baltimore-Maryland, USA
- Fracchia, Carmen (2011) Slavery and visuality in imperial Spain: the miracle of the black leg. The Early Modern Society, 2011, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2010) The image of colonial Mexico in Hampshire: the Braemore Casta paintings. 36th Annual Conference of Art Historians: Insular Preconceptions? The Arts of Iberia and Latin America and their Reception in Britain, 2010, University of Glasgow, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2010) The subjectivity of slaves in imperial Spain: the case of slave painter Juan de Pareja. History of Art at the crossroad?, 2010, Department of History of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2010) The visual formation of slave subjectivity in Spain. Birkbeck Staff Renaissance Research Seminar, 2010, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2009) El esclavo negroafricano en las imágenes españolas de los Santos Cosme y Damián. Los negroafricanos y sus descendientes en España (1492-1866), 2009, University of Granada, Spain
- Fracchia, Carmen (2009) El problema del blanqueamiento en las imágenes del afro-hispano en la España imperial y en nueva España. 53rd International Congress of Americanists: The Peoples of the Americas, Change and Continuity, 2009, Mexico City, Mexico
- Fracchia, Carmen (2009) Questioning slavery in Spain and new Spain. International Conference of the Latin American Studies Association: Rethinking Inequalities, 2009, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Fracchia, Carmen (2009) The miracle of the black leg. Birkbeck Research in Representations of Kinship and Community: ‘Conversation’ as Community: On the Stakes of Painting and Photographing the Bonds of Kinship and Community, 2009, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2009) The subjectivity of Afro-Hispanic Slaves in imperial Spain: the case of Juan de Pareja. Department of Iberian and Latin American Studies, 2009, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2008) Arte y esclavitud en la España imperial: el trasplante milagroso de la pierna negra. Arte y esclavitud en la España imperial: el trasplante milagroso de la pierna negra, 2008, Instituto de la Historia de la Medicina y de la Ciencia López Piñero, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
- Fracchia, Carmen (2008) The Braemore Collection of mexican castas paintings. ARTES: Iberian and Latin American Visual Culture Group, 2008, Braemore House, Wiltshire, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2008) Goya y la guerra de la independencia. The Peninsula War, 2008, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Instituto Cervantes, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2008) La representación visual del esclavo urbano en la España imperial y en nueva España. Instituto de Historia, Centro de Ciencia Humanas y Sociales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2008, Madrid, Spain
- Fracchia, Carmen (2007) Art and slavery in early modern Spain. Spanish Cultural Institute, 2007, Instituto Cervantes, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2007) El olvido de las obras del esclavo pintor Juan de Pareja. International Congress of Theory and History of Art, 2007, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Fracchia, Carmen (2007) Questioning slave portraiture in early modern Spain: the case of Diego Velázquez and Juan de Pareja. The Early Modern Society, 2007, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2007) The outsider's gaze: depicting black people in Spain. Imagining Iberia, 2007, King’s College London, University of London, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2007) The urban slave in Spain and new Spain. The Iconography of Slavery in Europe, 1500-1800, 2007, The Warburg Institute, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2006) Becoming the self or somebody else: the case of the Afro-Hispanic slave painter Juan de Pareja. School of Languages, Linguistics and Culture, Research Forum Seminar, 2006, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2006) The hardest graft of all: the miracle of the black leg in early modern Spain. Medicine and the Body Politic, 2006, Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics, University of Brighton, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2005) Representación de la esclavitud negra en la España imperial y la problematización del par 'original-copia'. 3rd International Congress of Theory and History of Art, 2005, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Fracchia, Carmen (2005) Representing black slavery in early modern Spanish urban space. 50th Anniversary of the Founding of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland, 2005, Valencia, Spain
- Fracchia, Carmen (2004) Becoming the 'self' or somebody else: slave portraiture in imperial Spain. Invisible Subjects? Slave Portraiture in the Circum-Atlantic World (1660-1890), 2004, Center for Transcultural Visual Studies, Dartmouth College, USA
- Fracchia, Carmen (2004) Depicting African people in colonial Mexico. Research Seminar, 2004, Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2003) Constructing the black slave in Spanish Golden Age painting. Picturing Poverty: Imagery of the Outcast and Marginal in Early Modern Europe, 2003, History of Art Department and Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2003) Depicting the African Iberian in new Spain. Latin American Identities: Legacies and Possibilities, 2003, Department of Spanish, The National University of Ireland, Galway, Republic of Ireland
- Fracchia, Carmen (2003) Depicting the Iberian African in new Spain. Mexico City 1680: The Artistic and Intellectual World of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, 2003, Nottingham University, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2003) Representing the slave trade in early modern Spanish urban space. The Topography of Slavery: Re-Membering Metropolitan Space, 2003, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2002) The lack of representation of black people in the Spanish Golden Age painting. Black Diaspora and Europe, 2002, Deptartment of Linguistic, Cultural & International Studies, Roehampton University, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2000) (Lack of) visual representation of black people in Spanish Golden Age painting. Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland, 2000, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (2000) Velázquez's black leg: Juan de Pareja and the hardest graft of all. Appropriations and Representations of the Body, 2000, School of Critical Theory and Cultural Studies, University of Nottingham, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (1998) Gaspar Becerra: a Spaniard in the workshop of Daniele da Volterra in Rome. Golden-Age and Renaissance Research Seminar, 1998, Spanish Department, University College London, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (1998) La simbología social de los modelos femenino y masculino en la representación visual del cuerpo humano en la España del siglo XVI. Fifth Latin American Congress of History of Science and Technology, Gender, Science and Technology in Latin American History, 1998, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Fracchia, Carmen (1997) Gaspar Becerra: a Spaniard in the workshop of Daniele da Volterra. A Splendid Isolation? Spanish Cultural Identity and the Visual Arts 1500-1700, 1997, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (1992) Gaspar Becerra and the high altar of Astorga. Gaspar Becerra and the high altar of Astorga, 1992, History of Art Department, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen (1991) The sculptural work of Gaspar Becerra. The sculptural work of Gaspar Becerra, 1991, History of Art Department, University College London, University of London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen The African presence and black confraternities in early modern Spain. Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race (TRRR) International Conference - Repairing Community: Faith-Based Responses to Racial Disparities and Conflict, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen Black slaves in early modern Spain: from commodities to freedom. Early Modern Material Cultures Seminar, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen Depicting the emergence of the Afro-Hispanic subject and the formation of the black nation in early modern Spain. Research Seminar. Department of Cultures and Languages, School of Arts, Birkbeck University of London, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen From the grave: the desire to be healed. Silvering the Cerebrum, A Symposium investigating Art, Science and brain banking, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen Juan de Pareja: a slave-painter at the Spanish Court in Seventeenth-Century Madrid. The London Art History Society at the Art Workers' Guild, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen Negros… pero humanos. Esclavitud y arte en la España Imperial. Facultad de Letras y Filosofía. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
- Fracchia, Carmen Picturing "Blackness" in Imperial Spain. Reconfiguring Black Europe, London, UK
- Fracchia, Carmen Picturing the Afro-Hispanic struggle for freedom in early modern Spain. Post/Colonialism and the Pursuit of Freedom in the Black Atlantic, Pittsburgh, U.S.