The exhibition ‘Paper Oaths. The citizen pact in the drawings of José de Madrazo‘, which can be visited from November 6 to March 2 in room 60 of the Villanueva building of the Meadowand whose presentation scheduled for today was canceled in support to all those affected by DANAoffers an opportunity to get closer to the ideological evolution of José de Madrazo – the first artist to direct the Prado – through a selection of drawings from the Daza-Madrazo Collectionacquired by the museum in 2006.
Carlos G. Navarro, curator of the Prado’s 19th-century Painting Area, has selected for the exhibition twelve of the nearly three hundred drawings by the artist of this collection, which reveal the profound influence of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)Madrazo’s teacher, in the unique interpretation that he made of the iconography of the oath. The works on display, from his anatomical studies, a reflection of his passion for classical statuary, to the preparatory compositions for his large canvases, allow the visitor to understand the artist’s creative process and also his ideological versatilitycapable of adapting to seemingly contradictory messages.
Through scenes such as ‘The Death of Lucrecia’, ‘The Death of Viriato’ and ‘The Destruction of Numancia’, Madrazo addresses topics such as heroism, virtue and resistanceframed in classical history but reflecting the turbulent political reality of the Spain of its time. In all of them the artist incorporated the oath, an iconography revisited by his generation as an artistic echo of contemporary political concerns.
These drawings, beyond their aesthetic valuethey have a deep political meaning that illustrates the ideological changes of Madrazo, who used his art to capture the tensions and debates of a nation in full transformation. The exhibition not only reveals Madrazo’s mastery of drawing, but also alerts to the need to approach his creative process from new perspectives, not as a mere formal process but in terms of its ability to introduce political issues. Thus, we can appreciate how he actively adapted the symbology of the oath to different iconography to build a modern narrative of national identity.
‘Paper Oaths’ offers a unique opportunity to delve into the most intimate aspects of José de Madrazo’s artistic creation through the wealth of his drawings preserved in the collection of the Prado Museum. These works on paper constitute a privileged way to document and reexamine the keys to Spanish Neoclassicism and, in particular, to review the influence of Jacques-Louis David – whose bicentenary of his death will be commemorated in 2025 – on the renewal of Spanish painting during the first third of the 19th century.
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