Romantic Spain: David Roberts and Genaro Pérez Villaamil

David Roberts, Castle of Marchenilla, Alcalá de Guadaira, 1833, Instituto Ceán Bermúdez, Madrid.

Scottish landscaper David Roberts (1796-1864) and Galician artist Genaro Pérez Villaamil (1807-1854) were giants of topographic art in the Romantic era. Between them they produced several hundred views of Spanish landscapes and monuments - castles, cathedrals, convents, palaces - often animated with a touch of local life. Fully versed in the aesthetic conventions of the picturesque and the sublime, Roberts and Villaamil constructed a romantic image of Spain in the nineteenth century that still colors the perception of the country today.

Romantic Spain: David Roberts and Genaro Pérez Villaamil reveals similarities between the two artists in terms of themes, styles and techniques, but also reveals crucial differences in their imaginative responses to everyday life, religion, landscape, history and architecture in Spain. Roberts, a Scottish Presbyterian, presented Spain as an exotic and timeless country, different from his own. Villaamil shared his fascination with the Alhambra in Granada, the Mosque of Córdoba and the Giralda in Seville, but he also turned his attention to the center and north of the Peninsula, projecting a patriotic image of the country as a Christian, Catholic and modern.