Wednesday, August 11, 2021

History Paintings by José Moreno Carbonero

 José Moreno Carbonero (1858-1942) was a Spanish painter who brought moments of history to life with grandeur and pageantry. 

Prince Don Carlos of Viana, 1881 by José Moreno Carbonero

He studied in Paris with Gerome, and spent time in Rome.

The Entry of Roger de Flor in Constantinople by José Moreno Carbonero
Height: 350 cm (11.4 ft); Width: 550 cm (18 ft)

One of his large works shows "the Italian mercenary Roger de Flor and his troops of Almogavar warriors entering the city to relieve the Byzantine emperor from the Turkish."

The Conversion of the Duke of Gandía by José Moreno Carbonero

This painting illustrates a spiritual—and gruesome—moment as San Francisco de Borja, Marquis of Lombay converted to Christianity "after contemplating the rotten corpse of Empress Isabel of Portugal, wife of Emperor Carlos I of Spain. The empress died in Toledo on May 1, 1539, her body being transferred to Granada, the city where the scene represented in the painting took place. When the duke contemplated that the corpse of the empress, whose beauty had captivated the entire Castilian Court, had decomposed due to the heat of the trip, the nobleman decided to 'Never again, never again serve a lord that I may die,'" He then entered the Order of the Jesuits.


In “La aventura de los mercaderes” (Adventure of the Merchants), Carbonero illustrates a scene from Don Quixote where the knight from La Mancha confronts a group of silk merchants in his usual psychotic fashion and ends up getting beaten by one of their servants with his own broken lance.

Adventure of the Merchants by José Moreno Carbonero

Here's a detail showing the care he lavished on each figure.
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Quotes from Wikipedia: José Moreno Carbonero

4 comments:

Movieboards said...

What a fantastic painter! I can't seem to find any book of his painting career, Only ( I think) Illustrated Don Quijote. Is there no book on him?

Mer Almagro said...

That conversion quote didn't make sense to me, so I checked the original Spanish. A more correct translation would be "I will never ever again serve a lord (or lady in this case) that can die" (on me? or on my watch?)” implying he will only serve god who's immortal.

Torreblanca said...

Hi I am the spanish owner of the Moreno Carbonero painting "The adventure of the merchants" and I am very happy with your blog about the painting. I invite you to come to Malaga and I will show you the exceptional painting with his original frame. It was painted in 1892 and it was exhibited in an important exposition in London in 1901 with other spanish painters as Velazquez, Goya, Murillo, Sorolla, Fortuny, etc. My email is antoniocastillog@yahoo.es and I hope see you in Spain. Kind regards.

Torreblanca said...

Hi I am the spanish owner of the Moreno Carbonero painting The adventure of the merchants and I very happy with your blog. It was painted in 1892 and it was exhibited in London in 1901 with other important spanish painters like Velazquez, Goya, Murillo, Sorolla, Fortuny, etc. I invite you to come to Malaga and I will show you the painting with his original frame. Kind regards.