Julio Romero de Torres

J. Ramón Otero Collection
Club Español, Buenois Aires (acquired from the above in 1924)

Madrid, Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1912 (exhibited beside La Consagración de la Copla)
London, Grafton Galleries, Modern Spanish Art, 1914

Plus Ultra, periodical, Buenos Aires, January 1921, illustrated on the cover
Ana MarÍa Fernández García, Catálogo de pintura Española en Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, 1997, no. 525, catalogued & illustrated; a detail illustrated on the cover
Mercedes Valverde Candil, Miradas en sepia, Córdoba, 2006, p. 97, discussed and illustrated

The canvas has been strip-lined along all four tacking edges. There are a few scattered retouches visible under UV light, notably strokes in the right of her shawl and a spot in the arch to the right. There are areas of craquelure in her right upper arm (visible in the catalogue illustration) and her breast, and some more subtle craquelure elsewhere, notably in her dress. There is an uneven varnish layer, and some areas of thinness in the pigments where the work appears to have been cleaned in the past. Held in a gold and black-painted wood and plaster frame.
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Adela Carbone was an Italian performer and writer, and Romero's sister-in-law. Here, she stands proud against a Cordoban backdrop, holding a tanagra figure, an ancient Greek terracota dancing statue and symbol of her calling. Romero painted the present work around 1911 while working on his masterpiece La Consagración de la Copla, in which Adela appears as the central figure. The two paintings were exhibited side by side in Madrid in 1912.

Romero had been to Italy in 1908 and admired the Renaissance masters, particularly Leonardo, Raphael, and Pietro Perugino. The overall composition is infused with his admiration for this period of art, from the dress of Carbone, to the elaborate architectural setting in the background.