The Casa de Alba houses in the family home an exhibition on the relationship of the 17th Duke with the archaeologist who discovered the child pharaoh’s tomb / ‘Alba and Carter’ brings together over a hundred pieces, many of them unpublished, with letters crossed between the aristocrat and the archaeologist
Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó (1878-1953), XVII Duke of Alba, was passionate about Egyptology. So much so that he was responsible for the early rise of ‘tutankamonmanía’ in Spain. The aristocrat was a friend of Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, financier and discoverer of the young pharaoh’s fantastic tomb, now a hundred years ago, in the Valley of the Kings. The Duke of Alba traveled to Egypt with his family in 1921, returned shortly after the find and invited Carter to Spain. The British archaeologist visited us in 1924 and 1928 to give memorable lectures in the Student Residence. He stayed in the Palacio de Liria, strengthening a long-standing friendly relationship with the duke.
In the noble and hundred-year-old mansion, that great friendship cherished by Egyptology is now being recreated with the exhibition ‘Alba y Carter. Discovering 100 years of Tutankhamen’. The Casa de Alba Foundation, on display until April 30, opens with her the renovated cabinet of the Duke of Alba, a new exhibition space dedicated to temporary exhibitions.
Compiled by the archaeologists Myriam Seco and Javier Martínez Babón, it contains more than a hundred pieces, many of them unpublished, revealing the Duke’s involvement in the dissemination in Spain of the most fascinating archaeological find. There are personal items, never-before-seen letters exchanged between Alba and Carter, manuscripts, documents and photographs never before exhibited, sculptures, paintings or uniforms. Pieces as curious as the suitcases of the Alba family during their four trips to Egypt, their passports or the original of the memories of the grandfather of the current Duke of Alba.
An active intellectual, bibliophile, enthusiast and promoter of culture, Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart served as a member of three Royal Academies and chaired the Spanish-English Commission, a pivotal institution in attracting figures such as Keynes, Wells and Chesterton to Spain. His enthusiasm for Egyptian history and culture is evident in his library and his writings.
Divided into six blocks, -Tutankhamun; Howard Carter Lord Carnarvon and the Discovery of the Tomb; the Duke of Alba; Howard Carter’s lectures in Madrid; the Duke of Alba and the Spanish-English Committee, and the Alba family’s fascination with Egypt – the show unravels the role of the aristocrat in spreading Carver’s discovery in Spain and the House of Alba’s fascination with Egypt since the time from Empress Eugenia de Montijo to today.
Carter began his work in Egypt as a draftsman until he was appointed Inspector General of Monuments in Upper Egypt in 1900 and excavated tombs in the Theban necropolis. In 1907 he met Lord Carnarvon, who financed his excavations. After several unsuccessful campaigns, convinced that there was still a royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings, on November 4, 1922, Carter found Tutankhamun’s tomb. In the following years, he retrieved, inventoried and restored more than 6,000 objects from Tutankhamen’s tomb. Tasks he combined with traveling and lecturing all over the world. His Spanish conferences had a huge impact, as evidenced by the press of the time visible in the exhibition.
The visit to the exhibition – seven euros general admission, www.palaciodeliria.com – can be combined with a visit to Palacio de Liria. The noble neoclassical mansion has been open to the public since 2019 and is one of Madrid’s great tourist attractions. The artistic collection of the Casa de Alba Foundation is one of the most important in Europe, including a remarkable art gallery with more than 400 works, as well as tapestries, decorative arts and an important collection of documents with more than 18,000 volumes.
Source: La Verdad
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