![\"Arturo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/bc180f5b-bb1e-4d00-970b-52883ad2a867.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Regency artist Sir Thomas Lawrence deemed Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s Las Meninas to represent \u201cthe true philosophy of the art\u201d of painting.<\/p>\n
A spirited public debate about who created the most important Spanish painting, however, has pitted Goya against Picasso, contrasting two visions of the country.<\/p>\n
The debate started when Arturo P\u00e9rez-Reverte, the combative bestselling novelist, challenged the assertion made by Miguel \u00c1ngel Cajigal, an art critic, that Picasso\u2019s Guernica was Spain\u2019s most significant work.<\/p>\n
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Arturo P\u00e9rez-Reverte<\/p>\n
RAUL DOBLADO\/ARCHIVO ABC\/ALAMY<\/p>\n
Cajigal, who made the declaration during a radio broadcast, supports the broadly-held consensus that Picasso\u2019s 1937 work, which depicts the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war, is the most internationally acclaimed owing to its status as the world\u2019s most powerful anti-war painting.<\/p>\n
But Perez-Reverte, a former war correspondent and creator of the swashbuckling Captain Alatriste<\/a> series of novels, strongly disagreed, stating on social media that the claim \u201chad left me in shock\u201d. <\/p>\n He then posted an image of Goya\u2019s Duel with Cudgels, an 1820s work in which two men, up to their knees in mud, club each other.<\/p>\n Duel with Cudgels, Francisco Goya, c 1820-23<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n \u201cPicasso painted Guernica, but Goya painted our soul,\u201d he wrote, prompting a long riposte from Cajigal and thousands of comments from the public, as well as media headlines about the ensuing public debate about national art.<\/p>\n The novelist\u2019s characterisation of Duel with Cudgels echoes the description of it as \u201csymbolically embodying the irrationality of fratricidal violence\u201d by Madrid\u2019s Prado Museum, where it is housed. <\/p>\n The work has been judged as presaging the civil war of 1936 to 1939 and in recent years it has been used as an allegory for Spain\u2019s deeply polarised politics<\/a>, which appears increasingly coarse and senseless.<\/p>\n The museum interprets it as an allegory of Spain\u2019s internal conflict during the restoration under Ferdinand VII, a vivid portrayal of internal divisions. The mural paintings were among those that decorated the house known as Quinta del Sordo, where Goya lived and have come to be known as the Black Paintings<\/a>, in part because of their sombre subject matter. <\/p>\n X-rays have shown that the two fighters were not originally sunk into the ground up to their knees but stood on a grassy meadow. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s Spanish to the hilt,\u201d stated P\u00e9rez-Reverte. Some Spaniards agreed with him and many argued for works by Vel\u00e1zquez, Sorolla and El Greco. But others backed Cajigal, with one commenting: \u201cIt\u2019s amazing for its technique, the symbolism of the figures and colour as well as for what it represents as a story. No one is going to deny that.\u201d<\/p>\n Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s Las Meninas, which dates from 1656<\/p>\n IMAGNO\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n The art critic pointed out that the image of Guernica adorns the UN headquarters in New York and its pre-eminent importance is underscored by numerous prestigious scholars. \u201cI have been teaching Spanish art classes to students from the United States for almost 20 years,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only painting they always know is Guernica. And then, Goya and El Greco.\u201d<\/p>\n Picasso\u2019s masterpiece, inspired by the devastating 1937 air raid by Nazi Germany\u2019s Condor Legion on Guernica at the behest of General Franco, was first shown at the world fair in Paris the same year. Picasso had been commissioned by the Republican government to produce a work to boost awareness of the war and raise funds.<\/p>\n![\"Painting](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/a69a4468-1db1-48d4-ae16-2c131411c681.jpg\")
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