Isidro Carnicero

ISIDRO CARNICERO (Valladolid, 1736-1804).
"Fiesta de toros en el aire", 1784.
Etching on paper.
Signed in the lower left corner.
A copy of this engraving is conserved in the National Library.
Measurements: 31.5 x 21 cm; 50 x 39.5 cm (frame).
A copy of this engraving by Isidro Carnicero is conserved in the Biblioteca Nacional. It is considered a possible testimony of the collection of drawings that the painter made after traveling through La Mancha, accompanying the Marquis of Santa Cruz and José de Viera y Clavijo. The latter wrote a travel diary in which he made reference to the drawings taken by Carnicero on the trip, many of them humorous in tone. Spanish painter and sculptor, son of the sculptor Alejandro Carnicero and brother of Gregorio, also a sculptor, and Antonio, painter and draftsman. He is a disciple of his father and the Preparatory Board for the founding of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. In the first competition of the Academy, summoned in 1753, he won a second-class prize and two years later a first-class prize. In 1757 he was granted a scholarship to Rome where he mainly made copies of ancient works. He models a Laocoonte, a copy of Santa Bibiana by Bernini, another of Antinous Capitoline and the Rusconi Sepulchre. Back in Spain, he makes decorative works for churches in Madrid, such as the Immaculate Conception of the sacristy of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid and Santa Barbara of the main altarpiece of the church of the Barefoot Mercedarians. He made the stuccoes and three doors of the organ of the royal church of the Encarnación, the moldings and statues that adorn the organs of San Isidro el Real and four holy doctors in the tabernacle, several angels and the group of San Isidro in the parish church of San Andrés. He sculpted, following Flemish models, the figures of the Conception, Santa Susana and San Mateo, which are preserved in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. He also made a Crucifix for the oratory of the palace of the Duke of Híjar and the Virgin of Carmen by Don Juan de Alemán. He makes some drawings destined to engravings, among them the Portrait of Carlos IV for the Description of the royal forest of Aranjuez. In the Prado Museum is preserved a marble relief, Apollo and the Muses, which is part of the series that was to decorate the over doors of the galleries of the main floor of the Royal Palace in Madrid.