We are now approaching the final stages of the year and it is a perfect time to look back and remember the period that is coming to an end. From Vivanco we would like to do so with a brief review of the 7 chapters of Ways of counting 2018. 7 videos in which we have wanted to transmit our love for wine and its culture. Our host in these visits has been Santi Vivanco. From his hand, we have been able to know the history behind some of the most special pieces of the Museum Vivanco of Wine Culture. We began a little journey in which wine, art and history will accompany us at every step.
Ways of Counting #1. Open, serve, drink
In this first episode of Maneras de Contar la Cultura del Vino of 2018, Santi Vivanco presents us with three very special corkscrews that are part of the collection of more than 3,000 corkscrews that can be seen at the Museum Vivanco of Wine Culture. These are three pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries that belonged to the French royal family. Made of gold, silver, ivory or mother-of-pearl, the design of these corkscrews includes symbols associated with French royalty, such as the sun, the fleur-de-lis or the ermine.
Ways of Counting #2. Antoni Tàpies - Cup
On this occasion, Santi Vivanco tells us how his father, Pedro Vivanco, who used to have a preference for classical art, began to buy contemporary art. He did so with the work Cupby Antoni Tàpies, which depicts a glass of wine. This 1997 painting, made on paper with oil, pencil and varnish, was about to be the image to be used on wine labels Vivanco.
Ways of Telling #3. Juan Genovés - Vinum
In the third instalment of Ways of CountingSanti Vivanco tells us about his family's love of Juan Genovés' paintings, a hobby that the director of the Museum Vivanco of Wine Culture especially shares with his mother, Angélica Sáenz. The family wanted a work by the artist that was related to the world of wine and Genovés suggested modifying one of his paintings to show some people treading grapes. And so in 2011 the following came into being VinumThe painting by Juan Genovés that is the subject of this chapter.
Ways of Counting #4. Jan Van Scorel - The Holy Family
In this fourth video we learn the story behind the first work of art that Santi Vivanco bought for the Museum Vivanco of Wine Culture. It is an oil painting, in which we can see the confluence of the Flemish pictorial tradition with the influence of the Italian Renaissance masters. After its purchase was agreed, it was determined that it was by Jan Van Scorel himself. It was a stroke of luck that made this 16th-century painting, known as The Holy Familybecame the most valuable painting in the museum.
Ways of Counting #5. Tempus Fugit
In this edition of Ways of Counting, we learn about the story of The Chariot of Bacchusa table-top pendulum clock from around 1775. It is a piece that came to the museum after Rafa Vivanco won it in an Internet auction, in which Ernest of Hanover put up for sale various objects belonging to the German dynasty. This watch belonged to King George III of England and is just one of the 60 watches in the Museum Vivanco of Wine Culture.
Ways of Counting #6. A little piece of Médoc
In the sixth instalment of the series, Santi Vivanco tells us how he came into possession of one of the most special pieces in the museum: a baton from 1876 from the Médoc Wine Guild, the most important wine-growing area in Bordeaux and one of the most important in the world. This baton reflects various wine-related motifs: satyrs, Bacchantes, bunches of grapes, grape leaves... It does so through magnificent bas-relief carvings on the tusk of a narwhal, a kind of marine unicorn.
Ways of Telling #7. From Australia with love
And we close Ways of Counting 2018 with this video in which the protagonists are a lead sarcophagus decorated with Bacchic motifs and a sculpture that represents the Personification of autumn. Both pieces date from the period of Imperial Rome, around the 2nd and 4th centuries A.D., and their recent history tells us about a journey around the world, until arriving at the Museum Vivanco of Wine Culture.
If you want to continue discovering these works of art and the rest of the treasures kept in the Museum Vivanco of Wine Culturedon't miss the next chapters of the Ways of Telling about Wine Culture. Or better still, come and visit us and share your passion for wine with us. We look forward to seeing you.
