Pioneer of Art and History
In 1970, Manuel Gómez-Moreno Martínez (Granada, 1870-Madrid, 1970), one of the most outstanding personalities of 20th century Spanish culture, died at the age of 100. Author of an extensive bibliography of almost three hundred titles covering the most varied interests of Hispanic archaeology and art history, he entered the scene of historiographic thought in the early years of the last century with the completion of the monumental catalogs of the provinces of Avila, Zamora, Salamanca and Leon. To him we owe essential contributions for the clarification of complete chapters of Iberian archaeology and Hispano-Muslim, Romanesque, Mozarabic and Renaissance art, as well as the primitive languages of the peninsula.
From his chair of Arabic archaeology at the Universidad Central (Madrid) he carried out, from 1913, a fruitful teaching work that, together with his teachings at the Centro de Estudios Históricos, radiated for decades the universality of his knowledge. His students included art historians Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón, Diego Angulo and Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, among others; archaeologists Juan Cabré, Cayetano de Mergelina, Martín Almagro and Antonio García Bellido, architects Alejandro Ferrant and Leopoldo Torres Balbás, etc. He was Director General of Fine Arts in times of the Republic and active defender of heritage during the Civil War through the Artistic Treasure Board. He was also a member of the Royal Academy of History (1917), of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (1931) and of the Royal Spanish Academy (1942). He maintained a fruitful relationship with some of the most outstanding intellectuals of his time, such as Miguel de Unamuno, Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Gregorio Marañón, among others.
His library, the archive and the artistic and archaeological collection that he managed to gather throughout his long life, as a reflection of his particular sensitivity and his broad archaeological and historical-artistic interests, were donated to the Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation of Granada upon his death by his heirs, interpreting a fervent paternal wish.
Thus, in 1973 the Gómez-Moreno Institute was created within the Foundation to conserve, exhibit and disseminate his legacy.
