Eugenio Lucas. After Goya, ca. 1850

EUGENIO LUCAS VELÁZQUEZ (Madrid, 1817 - 1870).
"Holy Week in Cordoba", ca. 1850. Based on "Procession of Discipliners" by FRANCISCO DE GOYA (Fuendetodos, 1746 - Bordeaux, 1828).
Oil on canvas.
Signed and titled on the stretcher frame.
Measurements: 45 x 72,5 cm; 57,5 x 84,5 cm (frame).

Eugenio Lucas, a great admirer of Goya, versions in this vibrant composition the painting of small format (conserved in the Real Academia de San Fernando), in which Goya represented the catholic fervor of the autoflagelantes during the Cordovan procession of Holy Week. The disciplinantes, with their naked torsoes, appear in the foreground, their bleeding backs visible. Behind them, crowds of people follow the steps of the Virgin of Solitude and Christ on the Cross. The effigies stand out above the heads, as well as the well-known display of banners, crosses and lanterns.

Eugenio Lucas was the Spanish Romantic artist who best understood Goya's art. Trained in the neoclassicism of the Academy of San Fernando, he soon turned his training around and devoted himself to studying Velázquez and, above all, Goya, whose works he admired and copied in the Prado Museum. From the master, Lucas will develop a personal and imaginative painting, of fantastic visions and unleashed passions. Apart from his Goyaesque themes, in 1850 he painted the now disappeared ceiling of the Teatro Real in Madrid, and later he was named honorary chamber painter and knight of the order of Carlos III by Queen Isabel II. As a good romantic, he made several trips, among which his stays in Italy, Morocco and Paris stand out. He achieved great success as a painter of manners and scenes of fantastic and sinister character, although it is true that he was also an excellent landscape painter and portraitist. His work is well represented in the Prado Museum, and also in other centers such as the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Lázaro Galdiano Museum, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the Goya Museum in Castres (France).