Guzmán el Bueno (‘the Good’)
1884. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (1225–1309), better known as Guzmán el Bueno (‘the Good’) for his defence of Tarifa against the Muslims. The painting presents an episode in Spanish history in which Guzmán played a leading role. He had been entrusted with the defence of Tarifa, reconquered by the Castilian troops in 1292 and attacked by the Benimerines in collusion with the rebel prince John of Castile. When the besiegers seized one of Guzmán´s sons, he did not hesitate to sacrifice the boy’s life before surrendering the town. Thus, the scene takes place between the battlements of the castle of Tarifa, at the moment when Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, dressed in the military uniform of the period, a coat of mail and surcoat, with a sword hanging from his waist, prepares to throw a knife with his right hand to sacrifice his son as a sign of resignation. Beside him, appears Maria Coronel, his wife, kneeling in supplication and trying to stop him by holding his arm, while three soldiers watch the event with astonishment. On the left of the painting, and in a lower viewpoint, a group of Muslim soldiers and part of their camp can be seen in front of a stretch of sea belonging to Tarifa beach.
Martínez Cubells took entered this painting in the 1884 National Exhibition of Fine Arts (no. 427).
