The Lázaro Galdiano Museum is organising an exhibition with 22 spectacular fans from the first third of the 18th century, the so-called golden age of the fan, from 22 June to March 2023.

The exhibition offers an excellent opportunity to see the evolution of this female accessory that was a sign of distinction and luxury of that period.  The special features of rococo can be appreciated in them, and how their structures fall into the Neoclassic style and Empire fashion.

The images that decorate them are the result of the work of artists like Antoine Coypel, Charles Le Brun, Jean Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. They are made out of paper or vellum (marinated and polished calfskin), materials that can be easily folded, and their effigies are inspired by mythological, historical, gallant and pastoral events, such as the Homeric poems from the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Aeneid by Virgil and the Metamorphoses by Ovid, along with the Alexander the Great’s gestures.

This collection was amassed by José Lázaro and his wife, Paula Florido, ever since they met in 1901 until his wife’s death in 1932. During this time, Lázaro gave Paula fans on two special dates: 15 January, on her birthday, and on 29 June, her Saint’s Day, to which her preference for fans from the period of Louis XV was added.