Rosemarie Mulcahy:ROSEMARIE MULCAHY, who died suddenly on September 5th, enjoyed an early career as a fashion model, working for Balmain in Paris in the early 1960s before going on to become a highly distinguished academic.
She will probably be best remembered as an authority on Spanish art.
Her collected essays, Philip II of Spain, Patron of the Arts (2004), reflected a lifetime of work in this area. She would often comment that this began in front of a picture in the National Gallery of Ireland: Abraham and the Three Angels by Juan Fernández de Navarrete, “El Mudo”, the artist on whom she was to publish a monograph in 1999.
Her appreciation of the richness of the holdings of the gallery is evident in her scholarly catalogue, Spanish Paintings at the National Gallery (1988), commissioned under Homan Potterton, and one of the first in the series of such catalogues of the individual schools of painting in the national collection.
Her book, The Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial, was published in 1992 in a lavish Spanish edition by the Patrimonio Nacional, and by Cambridge University Press in 1994, and won the prestigious Eleanor Tufts prize from the American Society of Hispanic Art Historical Studies.
Her work was much admired by the Patrimonio Nacional, the body charged with managing the royal sites of Spain.
She spoke warmly of her relationship with Spain and its art in an interview published in 1990 in the magazine Reales Sitios, and she was lately involved in an international research group headed by the Prado Museum to study the sculptures by Pompeo Leoni on the high altar of the basilica of the Escorial, choosing as the focus of her study the Calvary group of the high altar.
She always wrote well about religious art, a long unfashionable area of early-modern art history.
Her academic career began with a degree in history and the history of European painting, for which she studied at University College Dublin from 1970 to 1973.
She went on to take a master’s in history of art at London University and wrote her doctoral dissertation on King Philip II’s artistic patronage at El Escorial under the supervision of Anne Crookshank at Trinity College Dublin.
Her undergraduate modules on Spanish art, which she taught at UCD from 1989 to 2003, were extremely popular with students. She was made adjunct professor and honorary senior fellow of the department of the history of art and cultural policy at UCD.
She was also visiting professor in Renaissance studies at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, during the spring semester of 2009.
She had a serious interest in contemporary art in Ireland and served on the executive committee of the Rosc exhibition in 1988 and compiled the accompanying catalogue.
She also had a strong interest in printmaking and in 2000 helped to organise a memorable exhibition in Dublin of the graphic work of one of her favourite artists, José Hernández.
Her husband Seán Mulcahy was a prominent engineer and colourful artist who greatly encouraged Rosemarie in her many pursuits. They entertained friends and family with warmth and engaged conversation both in their home at Leeson Park in Dublin and in their cottage beside the ancient stone bridge at Clara, in Wicklow.
There they often sat by the Avonmore river and watched grey wagtails flitting around the rocks in the stream. Love of nature was a strong passion for Rosemarie along with her love of art and architecture.
Indeed, she found time to become involved in the movement to protect the environment and in the mid-1970s was for a time honorary secretary of An Taisce. She was also an active committee member of the Upper Leeson Street Area Residents’ Association, which has done much to protect the character of the area.
An honorary associate of the Hispanic Society of America and honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, Rosemarie was a true hispanista, who loved Spain and its people, and had a passion for flamenco dance, in which art she herself excelled.
In 2001, the Spanish state awarded her the Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica, bestowed upon her by the king of Spain, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the study of Spanish art and culture.
She is survived by Seán, her mother Lil, sisters Liz and Lorraine and extended family and many friends.
Rosemarie Mulcahy (née Scully), born April 3rd, 1942; died, September 5th, 2012