Zóbel Reads Lorca

This event will center on the Spanish-Filipino painter, art collector, and intellectual Fernando Zóbel. It will pay special attention to his years at Harvard and his previously unpublished translation of Federico García Lorca's play Amor de Don Perlimplín con Belisa en su jardín, which was the genesis of the book Zóbel Reads Lorca. Poetry, Painting, and Perlimplín in Love––recently published by Swan Isle Press (2022) and co-sponsored by the Instituto Cervantes' Observatorio at Harvard––with contributions by three eminent Hispanists. After a brief introduction by Executive Director of the Observatorio Marta Mateo, Harvard Professor Felipe Pereda will address Zóbel’s intellectual and artistic journey during his university years in New England. A contextual introduction by Harvard Professor Emeritus Luis Fernández-Cifuentes will follow, covering the role of Hispanism and the Humanities at Harvard University in the 1940s, which shaped Zóbel's thesis on and translation of the Spanish poet and playwright. The session will close with acclaimed translator and Boston University Professor Christopher Maurer, who will discuss Zóbel’s translation of Lorca’s play within its American and Spanish contexts, as well as explore the musical and visual elements of the work.