The immortal Don Quixote, a timeless figure

 The silhouettes of Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza are easily recognisable. We know exactly who they are when we see the image of a slender knight with a peculiar helmet atop a gaunt horse and a peasant on a donkey. The sad figure of the Manchegan nobleman has transcended time and space, influencing literature, music, visual arts, even cinema or Broadway musicals. Four centuries after the publication of the two parts of the novel, its iconic image still accompanies us today.

Bust of Don Quixote. 39cm
The illustrious nobleman Don Quixote of La Mancha is the masterpiece of the writer Miguel de Cervantes, and by extension, of Spanish literature. This novel, published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, tells the story of a nobleman, Alonso Quijano, who, driven by excessive reading of chivalry books, loses his sanity and decides to become a knight-errant under the name Don Quixote. He convinces a neighboring peasant, Sancho Panza, to accompany him as his squire, and together they face a series of adventures and encounters with characters and elements that are often interpreted in Don Quixote’s mind as fantastical situations, such as the famous episode of the confrontation against giants that turn out to be windmills. All this with the purpose of aiding the weak and driven by devotion to his beloved Dulcinea del Toboso (a peasant named Aldonza whom he barely knew).

The novel primarily originated as a satirical work in which Cervantes took the opportunity to mock the chivalry literature of the time. However, due to its complexity and length, it allows for various interpretations. Cervantes, moved by a humanistic sentiment and a certain melancholy, uses satire to criticize the society of his time, characterized by ambition and lack of scruples manifested in some characters that clash with the idealism of Don Quixote. His delirium, therefore, transforms into an act of rebellion against a reality that Cervantes considered unjust.

Our Spanish character par excellence, the immortal Don Quixote, has become a timeless figure that resonates in our collective conscience. He serves as a reminder of the importance of imagination and the constant search for firm and timeless values such as justice and truth in a complex and changing world.

In our catalogue you can find some figures of Don Quixote like this bust: Bust of Don Quixote. 39cm

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Figure of the Allegory of Winter. 46,5cm

Image
Figure of the Allegory of Winter. 46,5cm   The works of Houdon were devoid of the formalistic and cold distance of Canova. They kept the tempered grace of the previous classicism, and they knew make use of a noble realism, as we can see in this nearly half meter high Allegory of Winter. Here you can buy the piece: 
Read more

Buddha Head of Angkor, Serenity and Mystery

Image
Head of  Buda of Banteay,  Angkor.  25 cm One of the most recent additions to our catalog is this reproduction of a Buddha head , inspired by the statues found in the temples of Angkor in Cambodia. In Khmer art from Angkor, there is an abundance of sculptures depicting divine beings from both Hindu and Buddhist religions. Among them, the images of Buddha stand out, often depicted with a serene and smiling face. This Buddha head exhibits the typical characteristics of Khmer human representations in art: a smiling face, almond-shaped eyes, well-defined eyebrows often merging into one, and lips with outlined outer edges.  These representations can be found as standalone sculptures , as reliefs on temple walls, or integrated into the architecture itself, placed above lintels or serving as column capitals. Angkor Thom-Bayon-20-Koepfe-2007-gje by Gerd Eichmann under  CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED Angkor was the capital of the Cambodian Khmer Empire (9th to 15th centu...
Read more

Sunrise. Canvas of William Turner.

Image
The painting "Sunrise" by William Turner   Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851) was an English painter and the leading representative of the Romanticism; he is one of the greatest English artists. Despite its fast way to work, he created unique works. His main source of inspiration were ships and water, but also dramatic scenes of the nature. Despite that Turner was a romantic painter, was interested in sublime philosophy; portraying the awesome power of nature over man. Fires, disasters, subsidence, natural phenomena are described by the painter. When he died at 76 years, he left to the British government more than 20,000 works. Turner is considered the precursor of Impressionism, because his works stimulated various artists of this style. Here you can get his canvases:
Read more