Research and study

Research is not a separate division, but rather underpins all the museum's activities, conceived as an area of multidisciplinary experimentation. It provides the interpretative basis for the study of the collections and the presentation of the permanent exhibition. It inspires innovative content and approaches for the Museum’s temporary exhibitions. It supports the documentary treatment of the collections, and is a prerequisite for the preservation of museum buildings, works of art and restoration campaigns. It informs public and visitor analyses and the development of the Museum’s training activities and public programmes. And finally, it orients the Museum’s practices in the field of mediation and communications.

The Museum shares its research by welcoming experts and young researchers, facilitating access to the collections, library and archives, and joining collaborative networks with other museums, institutions and research groups. Our current lines of research focus on the following projects:

Historical photography

In 2018, the Ministry of Culture and Sport acquired for this Museum a set of 635 glass plates that belonged to the heirs of Mr. Ubaldo Torquemada, caretaker of the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts from 1899 until his death in 1921. During this time, his participation in the life of the centre was wide-ranging and notable; his work as a photographer stands out. He thus became one of the first people to publicise the sculptures in the Museum of Valladolid, as many Spanish and foreign magazines have published his reproductions.

A two-phase project is currently underway. The first phase will consist of identifying and cataloguing the plates, while the second aims to open up several lines of study that will yield new information of interest on the history of photography at the National Museum of Sculpture.

The public at centre stage

The Permanent Laboratory of Museum Visitors is a permanent research, training and communication project that deals with issues related to visitors at state museums, launched in 2008 by the Ministry of Culture and Sport. The first major cycle of research it carried out included a study on the public profile of the National Museum of Sculpture, a review of which was published in 2021.

Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, Valladolid

The origins of the Museum

The Museum conserves valuable historical documentation, from the years of the Mendizábal secularisation to the present day, which constitutes an essential source for research to deepen our knowledge of its origins and history. Inventories of the collections, memories of the institution and graphic documentation serve to illustrate the development of the Museum, whose research work currently includes the digitalisation of a large part of these documents in order to make them available to the public.

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