| Isabel de Ceballos Escalera | |
| Birth Date: | May 29, 1919 |
| Birth Place: | Segovia, Spain |
| Death Date: | March 29, 1990 |
| Death Place: | Madrid, Spain |
| Other Names: | Isabel de Ceballos Escalera y Contreras |
| Alma Mater: | Complutense University of Madrid |
| Awards: | Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise |
Isabel de Ceballos-Escalera y Contreras (Segovia, May 29, 1919 - Madrid, March 29, 1990) was a Spanish museum director and curator. She was deputy director of the Museo del Prado and director of the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, and a member of the Hispanic Society of America. A laureate of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise, she is considered one of the world's great specialists in Spanish ceramics.[1]
She was born in Segovia on May 29, 1919, like her twin sister, Blanca, in the Casa de los Lozoya on Martínez Campos street, in the historic center that belonged to the parish of the Santísima Trinidad. Her father was Rafael Ceballos-Escalera y Sola, third Marquis of Miranda de Ebro and artillery colonel, and her mother, Angelina de Contreras y López de Ayala, sister of the Segovian historian, Marquis of Lozoya.
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) she was a military health nurse,[2] occupying her position in several field hospitals, work that earned her the distinction of several military crosses. She was an interim official of the CFABA (Corps of Archivists, Librarians and Archaeologists) since 1942, being assigned to the Biblioteca Nacional de España and the National Archaeological Museum (MAN).
In 1943, she obtained a degree in Philosophy and Letters (History section) from the Universidad Central de Madrid (now, Complutense University of Madrid).[3] A year later, in 1944, she won the opposition to the CFABA official, successively occupying the positions of curator of the Cerralbo Museum (1944), director of the (1945-1946), curator of the MAN (1946-1971), curator of the Prado Museum (1971-1974) and, finally, curator, deputy director (1975) and director (1983) of the National Museum of Decorative Arts (1974-1989), retiring that same year.[4] Simultaneously, she served as director of the National Museum of Public Administration (1961-1989), and of the Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes (1968-1989), both located in Alcalá de Henares.[5]
She actively participated in some archaeological campaigns. Between 1945 and 1949, in the Visigothic Necropolis of Duratón (Segovia), in El Puente del Arzobispo (Toledo) in 1952, in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) in 1973, and also in the Roman site of Complutum (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid). She also served as assistant professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the Complutense University (1950-1956), and was curator of several national exhibitions.
Ceballos-Escalera died in Madrid a year later, on March 29, 1990, being buried in the crypt of the family chapel of the church of San Martín de Segovia.