Ciocciara

Dated to around 1850 and in the Museo del Prado, Ciocciara is among the earliest surviving works of Eduardo Rosales, predating his Roman scholarship by several years and suggesting either a study trip or an early engagement with the Italian genre subjects popular in mid-century Spanish painting. The ciocciara — a woman from the Ciociaria region south of Rome, identifiable by her distinctive folk costume of multiple layered skirts, embroidered apron, and white headdress — had been a stock subject for artists working in Rome since the early nineteenth century, when her colorful dress and supposedly unspoiled peasant character made her a Romantic type par excellence. Rosales's treatment of the subject belongs to the broader Spanish interest in Italian peasant genre that his teachers and contemporaries shared, and it provides an early indication of his eye for strong female characterisation that would mark his mature portraiture.

The early Rosales technique shown here is more tightly controlled than his mature manner — careful tonal modelling, precise costume detail, a relatively smooth paint surface. The ciocciara's distinctive layered costume provides an opportunity to demonstrate his facility with complex textile rendering at an early career stage. The warm ochres and reds of the folk costume dominate the palette.