The portrait made by Luis Moro of the essayist, intellectual and philosopher MaríaZambrano has been joined this Tuesday by the Portrait Gallery of the Ateneo de Madrid along with those already exhibited by Carmen Laforet, Clara Campoamor, Carmen de Burgos, Almudena Grandes and Elena Fortún, thanks to the ‘Women in Their Place’ initiative.
The objective of this project is to incorporate portraits of illustrious women and thus settle “the historical debt” contracted with them since until 2021 only Emilia Pardo Bazán was among the 188 men in the Portrait Gallery, as reported by the entity in a statement.
Thus, both the Ateneo de Madrid, the City Councils of Vélez-Málaga and Segovia and the María Zambrano Foundation have come together to celebrate the incorporation of the Spanish philosopher to the Gallery, with an event in which the portrait made by the Segovian painter and Castilla y León Prize for the Arts, Luis Moro.
The tribute, which was attended by the president of the Council of State, Carmen Calvo; the delegate of the Government Area of Social Policies, Family and Equality of the Madrid City Council, José Fernández Sánchez; and General Director of Attention to Victims and Promotion of Democratic Memory, Zoraida Hinojosa Valdizán, has been developed under the title ‘Choreography of thought’.
“It is a special day. María Zambrano came to the Ateneo very young, 27 years old, and paid 25 pesetas as a fee, the older ones paid 75 pesetas. The portrait that is presented today is that of a seasoned woman, who has nothing to do with the young Athenian, with a nostalgic look marked by 40 years of exile.“, explained the president of the Ateneo, Luis Arroyo, during the event.
For his part, the president of the María Zambrano Foundation and mayor of the Vélez-Málaga City Council, Jesús Lupiáñez Herrera, has stressed that this is “an act of justice” and has announced, according to a statement, that in November it will be held in Vélez-Málaga the 7th International Congress on the life of María Zambrano.
Furthermore, the painter and author of the portrait has reported that it is a portrait that “emerges from the darkness” to shed light and has explained the symbolism behind the cigarettes and cats that accompany Zambrano in the painting.