The Quixote Iconographic Museum
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The Quixote Iconographic Museum There are moments when the fíats of ibis beach become the plateaus of La Mancha, and I see Don Quixote and Sancho riding their mounts as if they were real. I touch them, I hear them, they are here with us. Cervantes created them to be immortal. Oh, what a relief to read Quixote! To read it in a concentration camp, like the minute hand of the human dock, like the discovery of the ideals that justifii the madness of genius in calling for a government of reason. EULALIO FERRER BARGARES, FRANCE, JULY 16, 1939. ion t e has been riding for da the more than Tour cen- Foun tes n turies since Cervantes' rva pen immortalized him. Ce r rre H His exploits triumph over the barri- Fe lio la ers of language and are recognized Eu he the world over. Don Quixote, the f t o knight of sad countenance, comes tesy r alive in every time, in every gener- cou d te in ous man true to himself who risks r rep his own safety and takes the side of tos Pho the oppressed. El ingenioso Hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (Don Quixote), trans- lated into practically all written lan- guages, almost obsessively critiqued and annotated, with a bibliography so large it is surpassed only by the Bible, is an image that goes beyond typeset and takes human form, a fig- ure recognizable through all time. Very few people are unaware of what Quixote looks like; no one would confuse him with anyone else. Recreated by the knowing hand of a craftsman, the expert brush of a paint- Spanish painter Antonio Quiroz, This Is How I See Don Quixote, 145 x 114 cm (oil). er or the sculptor's chisel, in all times 92 and all places, Quixote always tes from all over the world took over tains more than 600 versions of a brings to mind only one thing: a house-cum-museum to reveal them- single figure done in painting, sculp- Quixote. selves as their creators saw them. ture, engravings and crafts from a Of this, the city of Guanajuato The Quixote Iconographic Mu- myriad of places, but because of the offers us prod. Here, on a November seum is the only one of its kind in richness and quality of the works day 10 years ago, hundreds of Quixo- the world, not only because it con- themselves. Its uniqueness also flows ra rre Ba te 1 laSflIAT O Dan SMIl Spanish painter Antonio Rodríguez Luna, Don Quixote in Exile, 200 x 350 cm (mural in mixed techniques). 93 VOICES of MExico • 41 from the passion and tare with and he could see Don Quixote and When he got his liberty, Don which the pieces were gathered by Sancho approaching, real people, Eulalio carne to Mexico in the great their collector, Don Eulalio Ferrer and share with them a single song to Spanish exodus that settled here in Rodríguez. freedom. the early 1940s. His passion for Quixote became a collector's BIOGRAPHY OF THE COLLECTION zeal. On his travels through the world, Ferrer acquired any and The first Quixote that Spaniard all interpretations of Cervantes' Eulalio Ferrer ever knew lived character that he thought had in the verses penned by Miguel value: paintings, sculptures, de Cervantes Saavedra. It was engravings, ceramic pieces. The his constant companion, read fecund Quixote characters are ceaselessly, during the months represented in their multiplic- he spent in the French concen- ity of forms, figures and col- tration camps at Argelés and ors, without ever exhausting Barcarés in 1939. After burying their creative possibilities. To himself in its pages, the sea be- enhance his collection, Ferrer carne the plains of La Mancha, Mexican painter Alberto Gironella, After Dore, 80 x 100 cm (oil). invited important Mexican and Mexican painter Pedro Coronel, Cosmic Quixote, 355 x 851 cm (mural in acrylic and other techniques). 94 MUSEUM5 foreign painters to put their own The fecund Quixote the birth of the Hero in the mind of interpretations of Quixote on can- Alonso Quijano, the character him- vas. Different sized paintings and characters are self, the influence of the novels of moveable murals soon invaded the represented in their chivalry which incited to adventures and fed an unbreakable will, or Qui- walls of his home and the vaulted multiplicity ceiling of his "chapel-library." Six hun- xote's inseparable companions Roci- dred Quixotes, alone or accompanied of forms, figures nante and Sancho can all be seen in by the faithful Sancho, riding or hand- and colors, without Gabriel Flores' mural and the paint- in-hand with his beloved Dulcinea, ings of Alberto Gironella, Alfredo turned his home into a munificent ever exhausting Palmero de Grigori, Montoll and museum. Then, Ferrer decided to their creative Alvaro Delgado. part with them all and donare them The dramatic and representative to the people of Mexico. possibilities. sides of Quixote's idealism burst from The collection was established the brushes of Spaniards Eduardo in Guanajuato, one of Mexico's Pisano and Francisco Moreno Cap- most beautiful colonial cities and devila and Mexican José Chávez Mo- host for the last 25 years of rado. José Guadalupe Posa- the International Cervantes da, Mexico's engraver famous Festival. Since then, the for transporting the living to knight errant from La Man- the kingdom of the dead, cha and his universe can brings us an original Quixo- be accompanied on their te skeleton that, even in the unending march by all who beyond, takes up the sword visit it. unflinchingly against skele- tal giants. Dalí, Picasso, Alfredo Zal- A VOYAGE IN TIME ce, Raúl Anguiano, Mario AND SPACE Orozco Rivera, Antonio Ro- dríguez Luna, Benito Me- A collective interpretation, sseguer, Arnold Belkin, Fran- the collection of Don Qui- cisco Corzas, Pedro Coronel: xotes and other characters the list is endless. All united from the piece is exception- in a visual paradox whose in- al. Ensconced on walls, ta- terpretative power produces bles, glass cases and pieces of images evoking Quixote at furniture through the two- once challenging and fall- story building's 10 rooms, en, discrete, audacious, com- or guarding the corners and bative, serene, contempora- recesses of its central patio, neous, historical. they offer a free interpreta- Many of the Quixotes are tion of his wanderings. outstanding, but none out- shines the others. The viewer's The character's concep- The Martyrdom of Don Quixote, Mexican painter Gabriel Flores, gaze wanders over the paint- tion in the author's mind, 75 x 50 cm (oil). 95 VOICES of MEXICO • 41 ings, the statues, the engravings, the all to please a single character who, your only option is to take the les- porcelains, the pitchers, the medal- as Agustín Yañez would say, de- son to heart and get up into the sad- lions, the stamps, the platters, the min- served to be revered because, "The dle of the renowned knight to hear iature ivory carvings or the chess set cult to our lord Don Quixote is him proclaim, "For liberty... and for on whose board Sancho-pawns, the cult of Man's everlasting honor, life itself can and must be Rocinante-knights, windmill-rooks prowess and the exaltation of basic ventured." and, of course, Quixote-kings and values: goodness, beauty, justice, Dulcinea-queens face off. liberty." A fiesta of techniques, styles, After wandering through the Elsie Montiel forms, sizes, materials and visions, rooms of this very special museum, Managing Editor 00, I , frí loa 1;0011 ::; 10111 '1110111 ry the world's approximately 40,000 muse- nity. Among the many other pieces are works by L) ums, only one is dedicated to art whose theme Dalí, Picasso, Carbonero, Rafael Coronel, Vela Za- is the work of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: metti, Alvaro Delgado, Gregorio Prieto and Fran- the Quixote Iconographic Museum, housed in a cisco Corzas, as well as crafts and historical items. beautiful, restored, three-story eighteenth cen- Then-Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid tury home in the city of Guanajuato, Mexico. and Spanish Head of Government Felipe The Quixote lconographic Museum boasts González inaugurated the Quixote Iconographical almost 1,000 pieces in different styles, tech- Museum on November 7, 1987. The works them- niques and tastes: a very up-to-date version of selves were donated by the Cervantes Foundation Don Quixote and its characters. Several murals of Mexico, headed up by Eulalio Ferrer Rodríguez, grace the museum walls, among them Cosmic as a grateful homage to the people of Mexico for Quixote (463 sq.ft.), by Pedro Coronel; Work its generosity to the Spanish exile community. and Its Inspiration (420 sq.ft.), by Gabriel Flores; Every year the museum receives 200,000 vis- Quixote Between Life and Death (344 sq.ft.), by itors, among them historians and researchers Raúl Anguiano; Don Quixote in Exile (301 sq.ft.), from the world over who come to study what by Antonio Rodríguez Luna, whose work is con- only this collection can offer, a visual reading of sidered exemplary of the Spanish exile commu- Don Quixote. 96 .