Antonio Muñoz Degrain - Before The Wedding [1882]

Antonio Muñoz Degrain - Before The Wedding [1882], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A very beautiful study of Isabel de Segura, the protagonist of the nineteenth-century legend of The Lovers of Teruel, which was dramatised in verse by Hartzenbusch. The bride, prepared to marry Rodrigo de Azara, the spouse her father chose for her, wears an expression of profound sadness and desperation at not being able to marry her true love, Diego de Marsilla.

The modernity of Muñoz Degrain's art is especially notable in this work, where the detailed rendering of Isabel's figure contrasts with the loose and faded brushstrokes of the background. Indeed, it is barely possible to make out the silhouettes of the tapestries that decorate the walls, and the jewelry box and vase on the table to the right. This technique comes directly from the artist's admiration of sixteenth-century Venetian painting, in which the purely pictorial quality of the work, its exuberance and colour, are given more importance than the linearity of drawing.

The Prado also has another work by Muñoz Degrain related to the subject of The Lovers of Teruel. The latter was painted in 1884 and presented alongside the present work at the National Exhibition of 1884.

[Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid - Oil on canvas, 119 x 93 cm]