Álvaro Vega I Córdoba, (EFE).- The Córdoba Fine Arts Museum is exhibiting 24 works by Bartolomé Maura y Montaner (Palma de Mallorca, 1844- Madrid, 1926), the promoter of the etching technique in engraving, starting this Wednesday of interpretation of paintings against the defenders of classical burin engraving, before whom he ended up prevailing.
“Bartolomé Maura was a highly prestigious engraver at the time, he dedicated his entire life to engraving making series as important as those of masterpieces by Spanish painters or portraits of characters of his time,” José María Domenech, director of the Córdoba art gallery, where the temporary exhibition will be open until October 1.
Maura, whom Domenech describes as “the best engraver of his time”, was from 1872 to 1893 administrator of the National Calcography, a position he abandoned after winning the opposition of art director of the National Currency and Stamp Factory, later acceding to the position of chief engraver of the Bank of Spain, according to the reference of the sample.
Engravings from different sources
The 24 engravings on display belong to the collection of the Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba, fourteen of them come from the purchase by the Ministry of Public Instruction from Calcografía Nacional-Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, at the beginning of the 19th century; six from the donation of Enrique Romero de Torres, made in 1906; two are in the Avilés Collection, which entered the art gallery on loan from Ángel Avilés in 1922; and two others belong to the Romero de Torres Collection, which the Junta de Andalucía acquired from the last heiress of the line of painters and artists in 1988.
The total work of Maura, who is regarded as the engraver of Spanish interpretation par excellence, as an active illustrator of books and designer of diplomas, bills, stamps and medals, and one of the best interpreters and disseminators of Spanish painting, is estimated to be exceeds 350 pieces.
Domenech has specified that in the exhibition, opened today by the territorial delegate of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Junta de Andalucía in Córdoba, Eduardo Lucena, two lines of engravings by Bartolomé Maura are presented, one of the masterpieces of Spanish painting, where the author copies unique paintings by Velázquez, Goya or Murillo, and “even his contemporaries, such as Pradilla”, and later, “also portraits of famous people of his time, in a series of ministers of public instruction, of people who had looked after culture and other heroes, like Juan Valera”.
From Velazquez to Goya
‘The surrender of the Plaza de Breda’ (Las lances), ‘Portrait of Felipe IV’, ‘Portrait of a dwarf’ and ‘A tapestry factory’ (Las hilanderas), by Velázquez; ‘Portrait of D. Ferdinand of Austria’, by Anton van Dyck; ‘The family of Carlos IV’, by Goya; and ‘Presentation of Don Juan of Austria before Carlos V in Yuste’, by Eduardo Rosales, are some of the engravings with reproductions of singular paintings that are shown in the exhibition.
These last two present the singularity that, along with the reproduction of the work, Maura y Montaner incorporates an image of the painters’ busts on the left side.
Together with Juan Valera, Maura’s engravings show characters such as Manuel Silvela, Queen María Cristina, Velázquez, the Duke of Rivas or that of Ángel Avilés himself, one of the donors of the engravings to the Fine Arts of Córdoba, who appears as General Director of Public Instruction, like Valera.
Training in Madrid
Bartolomé Maura, descendant of the painter and engraver Juan Montaner y Cladera and brother of the politician Antonio Maura, began his training at the Provincial Academy of Fine Arts of the Balearic Islands in 1861, to settle in 1868 as a student of the Special School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving, where he had Federico de Madrazo and Carlos Luis de Ribera as teachers.
A member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando since 1899 and a theoretician of the Society of Artists, together with other authors he worked, from 1874, on the publication ‘El engraver al aguafuerte’, actively participating in the debate that At the end of the 19th century, there was a discussion within the Academy on the technique of etching in the engraving of the interpretation of paintings, in which its postulates prevailed over those of the defenders of classic burin engraving.
His work received numerous awards during the last third of the 19th century, such as an honorable mention at the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1862 and 1864; winner of the National Contest to engrave the painting of ‘Las Lanzas’ by Velázquez in 1872; and an art medal at the Universal Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 with the engraving ‘Las hilanderas’, by Velázquez, and an art medal at the Universal Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.
He also received prominent honorary titles, such as Knight of the Royal Order of Carlos III in 1877, Commander of the Royal Order of Isabel la Católica in 1883 and the Civil Order of Alfonso XII in 1902. EFE