Constructing Inherent Styles: Art History and Galician Nationalism in the works of Alfonso Castelao

Abstract

This paper analyses the works of Alfonso Daniel Manuel Rodríguez Castelao (d. 1950) from the lens of art historiography, to show how Galician art historical contributions from the beginning of the twentieth century connected art and artistic styles from the past with identity significations. My discussion is mainly based on the discourse analysis of Sempre en Galiza (1944) and As cruces de pedra na Galiza (1950), along with mentions to other texts such as Alba de Groria (1948) or several essays from Revista Nós. The examination of these texts is complemented with the study of Castelao’s visual production. Two main arguments are extracted from Castelao’s approach to the history of Galician art: the Celtic ethnic foundation of Galicia and the establishment of two national styles, Romanesque and Baroque, which are seen as intrinsic to this territory.