Querol in his workshop - 1892
To achieve great things before the age of 50, you need a very positive attitude and the belief that you can achieve everything you set out to do.
Report by Karla Ingleton Darocas (KarlaDarocas.com)
This was the case with the neoclassical sculptor Agustín Querol y Subirats (Tortosa, 1860-Madrid, 1909), who achieved amazing success before he died at the age of 49.
Madrid's most iconic buildings and landmarks date from the neoclassical era.
In this class we will study and analyse the royal neoclassical architectural style and the buildings and monuments that can still be seen in Spain's capital today.
The woman in this 1836 portrait is a Madrid aristocrat, Señora Delicado de Imaz. This woman is of an age and affluence where she is not interested in being painted as an object of desire, but as a woman of elevated society and enlightenment. She is a woman for whom wealth and power are more important than beauty and frivolity.
* Report by Karla Ingleton Darocas, Hons. B. A. (KarlaDarocas.com)
DAY ONE
Under the last Spanish October skies of 2022, I and three of my students went to Madrid. Our goal was to spend Halloween in the national capital and explore all the works of Francisco Goya, who had been the topic of the month in my class. The legendary Prado Museum has the largest collection of Goya's works and I wanted my students to discover them all. But we had many other exciting experiences ahead of us!
I picked up my last student in Ondara, and we hit the motorway. Four and a half hours later, including a coffee break, we were at our hotel. We went to our rooms and put away our equipment. We refreshed ourselves with a snack in our rooms. One student had brought a kettle, so she could drink tea, which she did
We went down to the lobby and reception called our taxi. By 3.30pm we were at the Prado. I had the most delicious coffee in the museum cafeteria, and we went in search of Goya.
We did find him waiting for us at the ticket office.
* Report by Karla Ingleton Darocas. Hons. B. A. (KarlaDarocas.com)
In this lecture we explore a genre of visual art that Goya spearheaded. While others were painting beautiful pictures, Goya was breaking the boundaries of established art aesthetics. The paintings in this lecture were not commissioned works, but self-created, so Goya had the freedom to realise his ideas
* Report by Karla Ingleton Darocas. Hons. B. A. (KarlaDarocas.com)
DOGS OF LEISURE
After the war between Spain and the First French Empire, which began in 1808 with the invasion of Napoleonic troops and ended in 1814 with the return of Fernando VII to Spain and absolute power, Spain was destined to shake up its social structures with the emergence of diversified social classifications.
There were still the noble families with land titles and wealth, and of course the peasants who owned nothing, but now there was a newly emerged stratum in Spanish society based on the wealth created by trade, manufactures, modern agriculture, retail, professions such as doctors and lawyers, and even arts and crafts. These self-employed people and family businesses formed a social class based on materialism and the pursuit of respectability called the bourgeoisie.
The bourgeoisie was now the class of people who wanted companion dogs to demonstrate their ability to spend their leisure time, and so the miniature dog breeds made a big comeback. Small dogs were now a symbol of success, a happy family life and a home because they had a good income.
