Spanish school; end of the 18th century- beginning of the 19th century

Spanish school; late 18th - early 19th century.
"Carnival".
Oil on canvas.
Presents patch on the back.
Measurements: 25 x 20 cm; 29 x 24,5 cm (frame).
The slight space left by the artist of the work in the foreground creates the impression that the viewer of the painting is part of it, as one more character of this great masquerade. The crowd that is presented as a frieze swirls and piles up one on top of the other, reaching an end of inconcrete forms that enhances the idea of a space inhabited by a multitude of characters. The loose brushstroke of the scene generates inconcrete faces, in fact, some wear masks, hiding their identity, which added to the type of clothing worn by the protagonists of the scene takes us to a masquerade. In addition, this festive atmosphere is contacted with the presence of trumpets, or a character completely dressed in white that seems to be a pierrot.
The piece awakens in the spectator values related to the theatrical and the fictitious. This thematic interest was developed and explored in the early nineteenth century by different artists who found in the theater, the circus and fairs a source of inspiration that led to the taste for portraying characters of bohemian life or props as can be seen in works of great authors such as Goya or Eugenio Lucas Velázquez who resorted on numerous occasions to this type of protagonists of veiled identity and grotesque appearance. This aesthetic tradition was consolidated and maintained thanks to authors of the stature of Picasso or Zuloaga.