Beschreibung:

Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta (Spanish, 1841-1920)Mi delirios sobre el chimborazo de Simón Bolívar signed 'R Madrazo' (lower left) oil on paper 55 x 41cm (21 5/8 x 16 1/8in). unframedFootnotesBorn in Rome, Raimundo de Madrazo came from a distinguished artistic dynasty which included his grandfather José de Madrazo (1781-1859), a neoclassical painter and his father Federico de Madrazo (1814-1894) who trained in Paris with Franz-Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873) and was regarded as one of the best portrait painters in Spain. After starting his career in the studio of his father and grandfather, Madrazo entered the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. In 1862 he moved to Paris where he spent most of his life. Madrazo soon became famous and sought after for his stylish portraits of members of the high society. The present work illustrates with fresh and bold colours Simón Bolívar's feverish delirium on Chimborazo, an inactive volcano in Ecuador at the time considered to be the highest mountain of the world. On the 13th of October 1822 in Loja it is told that Bolívar wrote the first version of his prophetical poem Mi Delirio sobre el Chimborazo, text that should be considered one of the most important works of Venezuelan romantic literature. Bolívar wrote about his meeting with the god of Time. This encounter opened his eyes and empowered him to continue his 'march for freedom' as he described it in the text. He wrote: 'A feverish delirium engulfed my mind. I felt as if inflamed by strange, supernatural fire. The God of Colombia had taken possession of me. Suddenly Time stood before me-in the shape of a venerable old man, bearing the weight of all the centuries, frowning, bent, bald, wrinkled, a scythe in the hand. "I am the Father of the Centuries! I am the Guardian of fame and the secrets of life. My Mother was Eternity; the limits of My Empire are the Infinite. For me there is no tomb, because I am more powerful than Death. I gaze upon the Past, the Future, and through my hands goes the Present. Why think vain thoughts, you of the human race, whether you be young or old, sunk in obscurity or cast in heroic mold? "Think you that this universe of yours is anything, that to fight your way to eminence on an atom of creation is to raise yourselves? Think you that the infinitesimal moments you call centuries can serve for measuring my secrets? Think you that holy truth has been vouchsafed to you? Think you in your madness that your actions have any value in my eyes? All about you is less than a dot in the presence of the Infinite, who is my brother!" Filled with terror, I replied: "Surely, oh Time! the miserable mortal who has climbed this high must perish! All men have I surpassed in good fortune, for I have raised myself above all. The earth lies at my feet; I touch Eternity; beneath me I feel the throbbing of Hell; beside me I contemplate radiant planets, suns of infinite dimensions. I gaze upon the realms of space which enclose matter; I decipher, on your brow, the history of the past and the thoughts of Destiny." "Man!" spake Time to me. "Observe! Learn! Preserve before your mind what you have seen, trace for your fellow men the picture of the physical universe, of the moral universe. Hide not the secrets which Heaven has revealed to you! Speak the Truth to mankind!" (translation from T. R. Ybarra, The Passionate Warrior, pages 252-54) Once the phantom disappeared, Bolívar remained in shock and unconscious for a long time. He wrote to have been awaken by the 'ringing voice of Colombia'. Once he opened his eyes he immediately wrote down what he had experienced, his 'Delirium'. The episode strengthened Bolívar and released him from his doubts and fears, empowering him to lead his people to freedom from Spanish colonisation.