Pranks of Love

Manuel Ocaranza is one of the most interesting painters pertaining to the second half of the XIXth century. A famous draftsman and colorist, he entered the San Carlos Academy in 1861 and, by the end of that decade, had impressed everyone with the originality of his subjects, which broke with all the conventions regarding epic-historic topics. In this vein, he executed Costumbrista scenes charged with moral significance and sentiment in line with the tenets of Romanticism, as well as works on allegorical-mythical topics. Pranks of Love is a work conceived as a light divertissement, far removed from the precepts of academic art. The delicate, graceful figure of the naked little boy, his body barely enveloped in a winding piece of sheer cloth, is that of the mythical Eros-Cupid, who, mischievously and with a malicious look in his eyes -belying his innocent appearance- is symbolically corrupting the purity of the passions by poisoning a white rose, thus exemplifying the dire stratagems employed by love in pursuit of its ends. A bow and arrow lie at the child´s feet, and he is surrounded by a delicately drawn, multicolored compendium of malignant symbols –consisting of a snake, an owl, a skull and flasks full of potions- befitting a sorcerer. This work was shown at the XVth Exhibition of the National Fine Arts School in 1871, along with other paintings by the Michoacán-born artist, such as The Concordia Café and Lake Flower. These are genre pieces aimed at the critics of the day, who were setting more and more exacting standards for Costumbrista works. It passed from the Morelia Regional Museum to the MUNAL in April of 1992.