The Sacrifice of Iphigenia / Masks
1763 - 1770. Iron gall ink, Black chalk, Wash, Pencil.Not on display
This drawing remained unpublished until it entered the Museo del Prado along with 88 others by various artists and in multiple techniques from the Artistic Recovery Service in 1971. The service – set up in 1937 in the regions under the control of the Nationalists – was responsible for returning works seized during the Civil War in those regions under the control of the Republicans. The lack of numbering or collection marks on the paper made it impossible to identify the owner. Furthermore, although the Recovery Service was officially dissolved in 1942, many of the works were passed on to the General Directorate of Fine Arts, from which they were later allocated to the Prado.
The bibliography on the drawing has focused on determining the subject it depicts. Salas (1977), the first to publish it, suggested (with some doubts) the possibility that it depicts the sacrifice of Iphigenia, a subject described by Euripides, among other authors. According to the tale, Artemis, goddess of the hunt, irritated with Iphigenia’s father, Agamemnon, for having killed one of her deer, stopped the wind that was to carry him to Troy. The oracle of Calchas then announced that the only way to appease the goddess was for Agamemnon to sacrifice his own daughter. Despite the similarity between the scene and the tale, the doubt was motivated by the absence of the doe that Artemis, taking pity on Iphigenia, sent to replace her in the sacrifice. Nevertheless, Martínez (2018) recently suggested that Paret might have depicted the moment immediately prior to the goddess’s intervention. Based on the shape of the drawing, Pérez Sánchez (1977) thought that it might have been intended for a mural decoration. Nevertheless, as the abruptly interrupted lines on the current edge of the paper show, the sheet was cut out. Its initial shape may therefore have been different and was not intended for that purpose.
The dating of the drawing is complex since it is not associated with any dated work. However, due to the classical subject matter and the style, it can be dated to the years around Paret’s trip to Italy. On the verso, there are red chalk sketches of masks reminiscent of the commedia dell’arte figures that Francisco de Goya and Antonio Primo drew in their respective Italian notebooks. There are also inscriptions in Arabic and Greek which demonstrate Paret’s interest in Eastern languages as well as the remainder of an inscription in which a French address (rue [...]) can be discerned.
The artist initially used black chalk to sketch the main elements of the composition. He then quickly and confidently traced them in pen without precisely following the preliminary drawing. Finally, he added the greyish ink washes to recreate the volumes and shadows.
Thanks to Pedro González de Sepúlveda’s diaries, which contain several of Paret’s formulas, there are records of his interest in the elaboration of drawing materials. One of these formulas refers to iron gall (ferro-gallic) ink, which he possibly employed in this work.
Matilla, José Manuel, 'Luis Paret y Alcázar. El sacrificio de Ifigenia' En:. Paret, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2022, p.72-73 nº 3
