03 Paintings by, Julio Romero de Torres’ El pecado (The Sin), La Gracia (The Grace) and Las dos sendas (The Two Paths), with footnotes
Oct 16, 2022
El pecado (The Sin), c. 1913
Oil and tempera on canvas
185 x 202 cm
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
During the period from 1908–15, Julio Romero de Torres was inspired and deeply influenced by the Gallegan modernist writer and dramatist Ramon de Vallé-Inclàn. Not only did the writer lend the artist the titles of many of the paintings of this period, including that of the present work, but the artist strove to interpret on canvas the philosophy which served as the foundation of Vallé-Inclàn’s modernistic poetic theatre. His was a philosophy of duality, of the eternal coexistence of good and bad, which was also a tenet the Spanish philosopher and poet Rubén Dario espoused in his treatise Sensuality and Purity (Sensualidad y Pureza)…