Santiago Manzarbeitia Valle has a degree in History of Art from the Complutense University of Madrid. He has been an associate lecturer at the Fundación José Ortega y Gasset and taught at US universities such as Syracuse University (Madrid) and St Lawrence University (Madrid). He is currently senior lecturer at the Department of History of Medieval Art at the Faculty of Geography and History of the Complutense University of Madrid, as well as coordinator of the Erasmus Programme. He belongs to the research group “The Medieval Image”, based in that department. He specialises in mural painting and medieval icons, as well as symbolism and religious aesthetics.