Spanish school; XIX century. Lot n° 26

Spanish school; XIX century. "Gallant scene in the bullring". Oil on canvas. Measurements: 35 x 23 cm; 58,5 x 46 cm (frame). In this painting the author makes cohabit two of the most demanded themes by the public during the nineteenth century. To do so, he starts from a pictorial tradition of manners, representing a scene in a bullring, while the main character is a couple flirting, a theme typical of the gallant painting. The main characters, the man and the woman, are not alone, but in the right area of the composition, seated and with her back to the viewer, the presence of another character wearing a mantilla can be appreciated. This apparently casual appearance leads the viewer to think of the figure of the procuress. A figure typical of picaresque literature and Spanish society until well into the nineteenth century, whose work consisted of facilitating love affairs, sometimes in exchange for financial compensation. Traditionally, Spanish painting and literature have been interested in popular customs and types. The arrival of romanticism enlivened this current, bringing to the Hispanic tradition the vision that foreigners had of our people, due to the snobbery of a Europeanizing and liberal national bourgeoisie that, also by foreign influence and under the romantic fashion, turns its eyes to the people and the monuments of the past. This, general in all Spain, will be preferably in Andalusia, for being this land the dreamed goal of foreigners, and where the influence of the vision they had of the Spaniard and his peculiar customs had to be felt more strongly. Thus, of the two fundamental costumbrista schools, the Andalusian school is focused on a friendly and folkloric picturesqueness, far from any attempt at social criticism; on the other hand, the Madrilenian school is more pungent and harsh, sometimes showing not only the vulgar, but even recreating in torn visions of a clichéd world of the slums, in which the spirit of criticism is evident.