At the romería

This is one of the three panels used as sketches for the stained glass windows in the stairwell of the Ibaigane palace (Bilbao), the home of the industrialist Ramón de la Sota. In this work, Guinea marked a new departure in the popular depiction of romerías (festive one-day pilgrimages) in Biscayan painting, which had previously drawn heavily on the formulas of the seventeenth-century Flemish school. In the three paintings, the compositions are arranged in such a way as to draw the spectator into the action. Here he places the figures in an open semicircle in the foreground to show us the aurresku being danced before the church. In aesthetic terms, Guinea knew how to adapt the key elements of modernist language to a decorative project, including a sinuous drawing style, a strong outline around both figures and landscape, intricate Arabesques in the vegetation and colours with few tonal variations.

Mikel Lertxundi Galiana

Inventory  number: GFA-005638-001