Isabel Mateo Gómez, Spanish art historian and El Bosco expert, dies

Isabel Mateo Gómez, a pioneering Spanish art historian known for her studies on Hieronymus Bosch and Gothic choir stalls, has died. Born in Almería in 1935, she studied Philosophy and Letters at the Complutense University of Madrid, where she discovered art history under Diego Angulo Íñiguez. She joined the Instituto Diego Velázquez of the CSIC as a fellow in 1960 and remained there for her entire career, becoming a research professor. Her work focused on medieval iconography, Hispano-Flemish painting, and 16th-century Spanish art. She published 'El Bosco en España' in 1965, which placed Bosch in his historical context. Her doctoral thesis on profane themes in Gothic misericords led to the reference work 'Temas profanos en la escultura gótica española: las sillerías de coro' (1979). In the early 2000s, she collaborated with Spanish police, Interpol, and Italian Carabinieri to recover stolen fragments from the choir stalls of Oviedo Cathedral. She also wrote on Juan Correa de Vivar, Juan de Borgoña, and Toledo painting. After retiring in 2005, she continued researching and advising. She was a corresponding academician of San Fernando, Santa Isabel de Hungría, and Fernán González.