“The Monster” was just a girl: the truth behind the Prado masterpiece that is now on display in Avilés
“The Monster,” in reality, was “just a girl.” This is said by Patricia Pérez, from the Cuéntame un Cuadro company, who was in charge of explaining to a first group made up of a dozen people the portrait that the Chamber painter of King Carlos II, Juan Carreño de Miranda, from Aviles, made of Eugenia Martínez Vallejo when she was six years old, a portrait that has been part of the Prado Museum collection since 1827 and that, since this Friday, has been hanging – in semi-darkness – in the dome of the Niemeyer Center (entrance costs four euros and also gives access to the exhibition “Juana Francés (1924-1990)”).
And Pérez said this about being “just a girl” when he began to explain Eugenia’s life in those years of the last of the Habsburgs: Charles II. “They called the monarch ‘The Bewitched’, which is a much more relaxed nickname for a kid who couldn’t stand up,” highlighted the protagonist of the first guided tour of the painting that will be in Avilés until next June 2 . “I can think of cruel nicknames like this that they give to the girl,” added the guide.
The first group that approached the dome to understand the importance of the portrait of the girl Eugenia was able to compare the differences between that painting and the one that was also made of her, but naked. Pérez believes that comparing the two shows that “the painter empathized with the girl.” And he points out, in this regard, the circumstance that when the girl is dressed, she “looks at the painter.” When she is naked, “however, no, she looks like she feels uncomfortable and Carreño points this out.” The guide explained that the artist, then, acted as an employee of the court, “more of a craftsman than an artist.”
The thing about “The Monster,” Pérez explained, comes from “when the painting entered the Museum’s catalog, in 1827.” Then it was called “Portrait of Eugenia Martínez Vallejo. ‘The Monster'”. Can these titles be reviewed? Pérez understands that yes. And he bets on it. The Prado Museum did so by reviewing 1,800 plaques that contained humiliating names or nicknames. The general coordinator of conservators at the Prado, Víctor Cageo, explained yesterday in the pages of this newspaper: “Neither I nor the Prado Museum like the name ‘The Monster’. She is a little aggressive for a girl.”
Pérez did not delve much into the reason why the girl had those features that attracted attention at the court of the last Austrian monarch. The doctors discuss what happened to Eugenia Martínez Vallejo so that at the age of six she gave the appearance that Carreño captured in the famous painting of her. Everything indicates that it was an endocrine problem. “Although in those days she was interpreted, in truth, as the result of excesses,” determined the manager of Cuéntame un Cuadro.
The girl was born in the town of Bárcena de Pienza, which is in the municipality of Merindad de Montija, in the north of the province of Burgos, bordering Cantabria. “She Very soon she was known in her region and, in this way, also in the Court,” said Pérez. “She therefore entered the group of people of pleasure, that is, those who accompanied the women of the court to highlight her beauty compared to that of the girl,” the guide continued.
The girl died at the age of twenty-five. Her portrait was one of the last of those painted by Carreño. Although he was born paired with the naked girl, they were not always exposed like this. Cageao, for example, explained that the nude painting did not arrive at the Prado until 1939 (the clothed portrait is from 1827, one of the first to come from the royal gallery).
Patricia Pérez explained some circumstances that make the two portraits unique: “There is no identified background. And we are in the Baroque, where everything is ornately decorated,” she highlighted. Cageao had explained it the day before: “In other paintings we discover the rooms of the old Alcázar”, that is, through the portraits of the court artists it has been possible to certify daily life at the Austrian court.
Roberto Mielgo, one of the participants in the first guided tour of Carreño’s painting, stood out “as a fan” of Pérez, one of those who follow each of the guide’s outings and has a degree in Art History. Jorge García, for his part, explained that he was surprised with everything that Pérez had discovered about the painting. “The best thing is to have the opportunity to see a painting that is from abroad here, at home.”
Guided visits for schoolchildren to Carreño de Miranda’s painting are scheduled to begin next Tuesday. The plan is for the students to truly get to know the girl who discovered herself weak through the brushes of Carreño de Miranda throughout the morning. Throughout the month in which the Prado and Telefónica leave the portrait in Avilés, those responsible for the Niemeyer accompany it with talks and even a baroque music concert.
