Alejo Vera Blasco Estaca (Viñuelas, Guadalajara 1834 – Madrid, 1923)
Roman house in Pompeii

Roman house in Pompeii

Oil on canvas, ca. 1878-1881.

Signed in the lower right corner: "Vera - Pompeii".

The work we present here must have been part of a series of small format compositions understood as studies, made in situ in the Italian city of Pompeii, among its outstanding urban and architectural remains. This canvas has a greater significance when we understand its connection with different companion works of this one, all originals by Alejo Vera, made in that Pompeian environment. Other works such as Interior of a Pompeian House (private collection) or the three small sketches on specific aspects of architectural details (private collections), must have been part, along with this Roman House in Pompeii, of an incessant search by the painter to project his own understanding and pictorial criteria in the representation of classical architecture. In fact, the first of these paintings shows the same Roman house that we present here, studied from another point of view, which demonstrates Vera's specific interest in this particular Pompeian villa. The relevance of this painting Roman House in Pompeii, painted and signed by Alejo Vera, lies in the fact that it should be considered one of the possible precedents of certain compositional aspects for paintings of greater commitment that his disciple Juan Luna Novicio (1857-1899) would make. We know that Vera enjoyed a pension from the Spanish Academy in Rome from 1878 to 1881 and that it was in 1878 when, thanks to his proposal and his hand, Luna accompanied him on the long-awaited study and training trip to Italy for all European artists. According to Ramón Hernández Nieves, in one of the last biographies on Alejo Vera, he writes about the master that "with the help of the banker Miranda he went to Italy and was impressed by the archaeological remains of the country, especially the city of Pompeii, which served him as frequent inspiration for his painting". An example of that context is reflected in the painting we present here, specifically, the treatment of its small staircase with a marble appearance. The pictorial quality of its three steps can be understood as a precedent of the same detail or subject matter that appears in Luna's larger compositions. In fact, the canvas Roman Ladies, which the Filipino painter signed and made in 1882, practically after the possible chronology of this Roman House in Pompeii de Vera (around 1878-1881), shows without a doubt the possible dependence between compositional aspects in both works. At the same time, the treatment and pictorial texture of the ochre wall in this painting of Vera, connects from the chromatic point of view with the tonalities chosen by Luna for his proposed painting. For all these reasons, this work must have been a painting known and perhaps appreciated by Juan Luna.

מידות:

55 x 44 ס"מ