I was strolling down Calle Gran Via in Madrid last October, checking out what is known as “Spanish Broadway,” in the sense of it being the Madrid counterpart to New York City’s Broadway. This stretch of street is a prime shopping areas, with a large number of hotels, high end stores, and various other shops. The Gran Vía serves as a prime location to view early 20th-century revival architecture, including styles ranging from Art Deco, Vienna Secession, Neo-Mudéjar, and Plateresque, among many other styles. At any rate, I noticed a building (seen both above right and below) where there was a figure on the front of the building who appeared to be coming out of a frame. It made me think of the famous painting “Escaping Criticism,” 1874, by Pere Borrell del Caso and seen above left.
The visual comparison might be fine enough on its own, but in researching the painting for this blog post, I learned that Borrell del Caso was a Spanish painter, and the painting just so happens to be in the collection of the Banco de España, also in Madrid. So was the painting inspired by this architectural detail? Or the architectural detail inspired by the painting?
As far as Pere Borrell del Caso and the painting, it has been suggested that given Borrell del Caso’s background as a cabinetmaker and his rebellious stance against the rigid academic art expectations during his lifetime, perhaps the painting is his expression of artistic freedom, with the figure stepping right out of the picture.
I did a little more research on this building, and it’s called the “Edificio Grassy” building at 1 Gran Via. It was designed by architect Eladio Laredo and built between 1916-1917, so Laredo could have certainly been aware of the Pere Borrell del Caso painting, since it predates the building by 42 years.