Context Madrid Tour Guides

Dr. Sabina de Cavi is an art historian and freelance curator specializing in Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, particularly in Italy and Spain. She studied at the University La Sapienza of Rome (BA and MA), and at Columbia University (Ph.D. class 2007), publishing her doctoral thesis in 2009 (Architecture and Royal Presence: Domenico and Giulio Cesare Fontana in Spanish Naples (1592-1627), Cambridge Scholars Press, UK). The recipient of pre and post-doctoral fellowships at the Istituto Italiano di Studi Storici Benedetto Croce in Naples, Columbia University, CASVA at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, and the Royal Flemish Academy for Science and the Arts in Brussels, she has published extensively on the Italian Broque, and curated an exhibition of eighteenth-century Neapolitan nativity scenes at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth in 2008-09

Originally from Madrid, Almudena graduated in Art History in 1997 from Warwick University (B.A. Hons). Her first experience of Italy dates from 1996, as an undergraduate living and studying in Venice. Her interest in Italian art was further fueled during her Master's thesis, which dealt with the fourteenth century tomb of Rizzardo di Camino in Vittorio Veneto, and the course "Rome before Avignon." After completing the M.A. in art history at Warwick in 1999, she focused her doctoral research on the artistic patronage of Cardinal Gil de Albornoz in Spain and Italy in the fourteenth century. Throughout her Ph.D., Almudena traveled extensively around Italy and Spain, and lived in Rome for a year while collecting documentation kept at the Vatican archives. Her main interests lie in the history of the Church in the 1300s and the patronage of medieval fortresses, reliquaries, and textiles, as well as tomb sculpture. She has worked as a family art workshop docent at CaixaForum Madrid and teaches history of art to young children on a private basis. She has translated numerous academic articles, including articles on the architectural history of Toledo Cathedral. Currently, she works with the Association of Friends of the International Brigades translating interviews with veterans of the Spanish Civil War, an indispensable resource in our Civil War and Madrid after Franco walk. After living in Vicenza, Italy, Almu now splits her time between her native Madrid and Venice.

Andrea Van Houtven received her Ph.D. in art history at the University of Maryland. Her dissertation was on the relationship between art and humanism at the Spanish court in the early 17th century, which inevitably led her to Madrid. She has lived in Madrid for 12 years where she has been teaching art history and art-related courses at various universities and private centers. She also participates in special events at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

Michelle Proietti earned her M.A. in political science at the University of North Carolina and has held positions in several international organizations on both sides of the Atlantic. She has resided in Madrid where she works as a teacher for the last 18 months. Michelle has a wide knowledge of Madrid, her history, and contemporary life and culture.

Born in Madrid, Miguel Fregosi has spent many years moving between the Spanish capital and Paris working in the fashion world as a business consultant. When he settled in Madrid permanently, Fregosi became fascinated with Flamenco and began taking dancing lessons with the master Maruja Palacios at Amor de dios, one of Madrid's top Flamenco schools. Fregosi has also studied under Miguel Cañas at Jerez de la Forntera with Antonio El Pipa. As an insider who came to Flamenco from the outside, Miguel is uniquely qualified to explain Flamenco and other Spanish cultural forms.