The death of Daoíz in Monteleón Artillery Ground Leonardo Alenza 1835

The death of Daoíz in Monteleón Artillery Ground
Leonardo Alenza 1835
From the collection of
Museo Nacional del Romanticismo
Except those painted by Goya, this picture is the first known concerning the events happened on 2 May 1808 in Madrid, despite the importance that early stages of the Peninsular War had for its subsequent development. It was painted by Leonardo Alenza twenty seven years later, in 1835, and two years after the death of Fernando VII, at the height of the Carlist War, which forced to extend the agreement between the Crown and liberalism. In this context, the Academy of San Fernando carried out an official commission of an historical painting (for its annual exhibition) on the conflict of 2 May 1808, a fundamental reference for Spanish nationalism. / Alenza received the commission and he based his work in previous prints about the Madrid conflict. He focused the dramatic intensity on three characters: the Spanish military hero, the anonymous heroine and the evil French general, being the true symbolic subject of the painting the ideas of betrayal and deceit that the French people infringed to the country of Spain. / Considering that Alenza wanted to please the Academy, it is surprising his use of such a dark colour range, especially because the represented events took place in broad daylight. That is the evidence of Goya’s prints influence.
Details
Title: The death of Daoíz in Monteleón Artillery Ground
Date Created: 1835
Location Created: Madrid
Signature: Leonardo Alenza 1835
Physical Dimensions: w210 x h126 cm (Without frame)
Painter, engraver and illustrator: Leonardo Alenza
Original title: La muerte de Daoíz en el Parque de Artillería de Monteleón
Cultural Context: Spanish Romanticism
Type: Painting
Rights: http://en.museoromanticismo.mcu.es/investigacion/normasReproduccionFondos.html
External Link: CERES http://ceres.mcu.es/pages/Main?idt=7739&inventary=CE2456&table=FMUS&museum=MNR
Medium: Oil on canvas

Museo Nacional del Romanticismo
Madrid, Spain

The Museo del Romanticismo depends on the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of the Spanish Government through the General Direction for Fine Arts, Cultural Properties, Archives and Libraries.

The museum is dedicated to Romanticism, a cultural and political movement that reached its height throughout Europe in the early 19th century, and is housed in an 18th century palace, in the main downtown of the city.

It is a museum house, a reconstruction of how a bourgeois palace could have been during the Spanish Romanticism (1830-1868). The Museum visitor has access to different types and levels of information through two essential routes: and atmospheric tour (with special reference to the decorative aspects and the daily life of this period) and a tour based on thematic criteria showing historical, political and artistic issues.

The origin of the collections is closely linked to its founder, Benigno de la Vega Inclán, 2nd Marquis de la Vega Inclán. In 1921, in anticipation of the future museum, the Spanish Society of Friends of Art organised an exhibition of 86 paintings and pieces of furniture belonging to the Marquis. Thereafter, the initial core of the collection has been enriched with subsequent purchases, donations and deposits that have made the Museum one of the clearest exponents of the re-creation of Romantic atmospheres from the 19th century in Spain. The Museum's collections are characterised by their richness and heterogeneity, containing 15.708 museographic funds, as well as around 3.900 documentary funds belonging to its interesting historical archive. The Museum has a heterogeneous collection, with paintings, miniatures, engravings, drawings, furniture, photographs, sculptures, toys and decorative arts.

Leonardo Alenza
1807 - 1845

Leonardo Alenza y Nieto was a Spanish painter and engraver in the Romantic style; associated with the Costumbrista movement.
http://hisour.com/art-medium/paintings/the-death-of-daoiz-in-monteleon-artillery-ground-leonardo-alenza-1835/