Julio Romero de Torres

J. Ramón Otero Collection;

Where acquired by Club Español, Buenos Aires, by 1924.

Madrid, Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1912 (exhibited beside La Consagración de la Copla);

London, Grafton Galleries, Modern Spanish Art, 1914.

Plus Ultra, Buenos Aires, January 1921, reproduced on the cover;

A.M.F. García, Catálogo de pintura Española en Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires 1997, no. 525, pp. 157–58, reproduced in colour p. 157 and as a detail on the cover;

M.V. Candil, Miradas en sepia, Córdoba 2006, p. 97, reproduced.

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.