Portrait of Pedro de Salvador Carmona and his wife María García

Manuel Salvador Carmona

1780 · Etching and engraving · Drawings and Prints

A significant printmaker who worked in Madrid, Salvador Carmona is little known outside Spain today. He made hundreds of prints, among them portraits, of which this is one of the most engaging. The inscription along the bottom records that it depicts his parents. The father, Pedro de Salvador Carmona, died the year the portrait was made, and thus it may be commemorative. In a clever demonstration of illusionism, the print presents the viewer with a visual challenge: it reproduces another engraving, with curling edges that project toward the viewer.

Artist

Manuel Salvador Carmona

Date

1780

Medium

Etching and engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Massar Gift, 1986