3-020-995 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Monks Illuminating in a Convent at Valladolid, Spain," by T. R. Macquoid, in the General Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings, 1869. 'The city of Valladolid, though sadly fallen from its high estate, is most interesting to the artist and antiquary...formerly the kingdom of Leon, it was at one time the capital of Spain, and, in the fifteenth century, was prosperous and wealthy...Among the more remarkable of the ecclesiastical buildings is the Colesio [Colegio] de San Gregorio - an edifice very elaborately decorated. The cloister of this college is in particular very striking and original in its sculptured carvings, and the ornamentation furnishes a fine example of that ornate grandiose style peculiar to Spanish architecture...The scene of the excellently-painted water-colour drawing by Mr. T. R. Macquoid, which we have engraved, is laid in the upper gallery of this cloister. Here the artist has appropriately introduced monks engaged in embellishing some of the church choral books which are so profusely illuminated in Spain'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.