Hidalgos - History Lab

Still life with figures

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:14 +0000

This genre of decorative paintings for domestic settings, with market scenes, kitchens and other settings with still lifes and figures, was intended to provoke laughter in the viewer through the physical qualities of the shopkeepers or through moral defects such as gluttony. Thus, their function had a moralising significance, alluding to sayings or commonplaces known to the people of the time. Despite the rudeness of these still lifes, Baroque-era creations contain a polysemy that made them complex even at that time, such as the fact that the painting is written in Latin, which shows that they were intended for a specific public due to the level of erudition shown. Thanks to this type of work, clues can be sought in the study of food or clothing and, through this, of the social types existing at the time. On the right is a gentleman holding an open melon, dressed in the typical court costume of the courtly sphere.

The post Still life with figures first appeared on History Lab.

Genealogy of noblemen: the Corro Bustamante family – Auñón de Alcaraz (Albacete) in the 1730s

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:36 +0000

Marriage relations between different families obeyed reproduction strategies based on the concentration and accumulation of patrimony. Among the nobility, it was common to carry out similar operations in search of material benefit. The town of Alcaraz was no stranger to these mentalities and two of its most important families, the Corro Bustamante and the Auñón, joined together. This union came about through a double marriage: two sons and two daughters forged matrimonial bonds that would bear fruit 13 years later when one of them, Juan Manuel, monopolised most of the properties when his brother died without offspring. Juan Manuel also inherited from his mother-in-law all the bonds and free property that she had at her disposal. In this way the patrimony and status of both families was perpetuated, even more so in the accumulation by one of the sons.

The post Genealogy of noblemen: the Corro Bustamante family – Auñón de Alcaraz (Albacete) in the 1730s first appeared on History Lab.

Raised in Ciudad Real in 1751

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:33 +0000

The table presented reflects the number and percentage of heads of households who have servants in their service, as well as the typology of the servants. The relationship between both factors, masters and servants, is determined by the socio-economic structure of the territory. Thus, in Ciudad Real, which had a strong agrarian oligarchy, the number of servants per head of household was high, even more so among the wealthy strata of local society. Analysing the data, 61.3% of the servants in Ciudad Real depended on perpetual offices and hidalgos in 1751. In total, of the 50 heads of privileged families, the servant servants numbered 55 and the servant maids 75, showing a preference for females in domestic tasks. On the other hand, the labour and livestock servants numbered 156 and 363 respectively, the vast majority of whom were male. On average, there were 13 servants per wealthy family. The situation of many workers was one of dependence on the master; even more so if we consider the servants in service (the typical profile was female, orphaned, single and young).

The post Raised in Ciudad Real in 1751 first appeared on History Lab.