A queen, a saint, a court painter, a royal sculptor and the fight for the vote
Spain's story is often told through kings, saints and generals. But women prayed, painted, carved, wrote and argued their way into it too. Meet them, from the 1400s to today, and find them in the museums.
In 1474, Isabella was proclaimed queen of Castile in Segovia. With her husband Ferdinand she united much of Spain, but her reign also forced the Jews to convert or leave. Teresa of Ávila, a nun with a sharp pen, founded new convents and wrote books still read today. The Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola worked at the court of Philip II, and Luisa Roldán from Seville became sculptor to the king. In the 1800s, Rosalía de Castro wrote poems in Galician, and Emilia Pardo Bazán later became the first woman professor at a Spanish university. In 1931, Clara Campoamor fought in parliament for women's right to vote, and won. Painters like Maruja Mallo and Remedios Varo broke the rules, until war sent them abroad. Today, Spain's big museums are finally showing more of these women's work.
Pick a colour to follow one story. Every moment shows where you can still see it.
On 13 December, Isabella, aged 23, is proclaimed queen of Castile in Segovia. She rules together with her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon.
See it at: SegoviaIsabella and Ferdinand take Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, and order all Jews to convert or leave. The same year, the queen backs Columbus's voyage, which leads to the conquest of the Americas. She is buried in Granada.
See it at: Royal Chapel of GranadaSofonisba Anguissola, a famous young painter from Cremona in Italy, is invited to the court of Philip II. She teaches the young queen, Elisabeth of Valois, to draw and paint, and makes portraits of the royal family.
See it at: Prado MuseumIn Ávila, the nun Teresa of Jesus opens the small convent of San José, with a simpler, stricter way of life. She goes on to found many more convents and writes books that are still read today.
See it at: ÁvilaLuisa Roldán, called La Roldana, the daughter of a sculptor from Seville, becomes sculptor to King Charles II. That year she carves Saint Michael defeating the devil for El Escorial. People say the angel has her face and the devil her husband's.
See it at: Monastery of El EscorialMaría Isidra de Guzmán, aged 17, receives a doctorate from the University of Alcalá. She is the first woman in Spain to earn this title.
When French troops attack Zaragoza, Agustina de Aragón, about 22 years old, takes over a cannon from a fallen soldier and fires it. Goya later shows the scene in his prints The Disasters of War.
See it at: ZaragozaRosalía de Castro publishes Cantares gallegos, poems in Galician, at a time when many saw it as a language only for peasants. Since 1963, Galicia celebrates the Day of Galician Literature on 17 May, the date of the book.
See it at: Casa Museo de Rosalía de CastroEmilia Pardo Bazán, a writer from A Coruña, becomes the first woman to hold a professor's chair at a Spanish university, in Madrid. The Royal Spanish Academy, however, never lets her in.
See it at: Casa-Museo Emilia Pardo BazánMaruja Mallo, a young painter from Galicia, shows her colourful paintings of Madrid's street parties at the offices of the magazine Revista de Occidente. She is one of Las Sinsombrero, the women of the 1920s who dared to go out without a hat.
See it at: Museo Reina SofíaOn 1 October, Spain's parliament votes 161 to 121 to give women the vote. The lawyer Clara Campoamor, one of very few women members, leads the fight. Even another woman member, Victoria Kent, argued to wait. Women vote for the first time in 1933.
Remedios Varo, a surrealist painter born in Anglès, near Girona, flees the war in Europe and settles in Mexico. There she paints dreamlike pictures of travellers, towers and strange machines.
See it at: Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico CityUnder Franco's dictatorship, a married woman needs her husband's permission to work, open a bank account or get a passport. A law in 1975 ends this 'marital permission'.
The Prado opens its first exhibition ever about a woman painter: Clara Peeters, who painted still lifes in Antwerp in the early 1600s. In 2019 Sofonisba Anguissola gets her turn, together with Lavinia Fontana.
See it at: Prado MuseumThe museums and places where this story comes alive.
Spain's great art museum. Look for Sofonisba Anguissola's portrait of Philip II dressed in black, for a long time thought to be by a male court painter. Then find the still lifes of Clara Peeters, with their shiny cups and tiny details.
Spain's big museum of modern art. Look for Maruja Mallo's bright, noisy street-party paintings, and for A World by Ángeles Santos, a huge, strange picture she painted while still a teenager.
The giant monastery and palace of Philip II, in the hills outside Madrid. Look for La Roldana's Saint Michael, and check his face: is it really hers?
Isabella and Ferdinand are buried here, next to the cathedral. In the small museum, look for the queen's own crown and sceptre, and the Flemish paintings she collected.
The family house of the writer in the old town of A Coruña, with her study, furniture and books. A quiet place to meet a woman who would not take no for an answer.
The house near Padrón where Rosalía de Castro spent her last years and died in 1885. A simple, peaceful home with a garden, full of the poet's memory.
She founded the convent of San José in Ávila in 1562.
Clara Campoamor, a lawyer, won the vote 161 to 121.
King Charles II named her his sculptor, and she was called La Roldana.