Ex Cathedra ("ex catedra")
1807–45
Medium
Pen and dark brown ink with some brush and gray-brown wash on off-white paper
Dimensions
7-1/8 x 5-1/8 in. (18.1 x 13.0 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Dodge Fund, 1939
Accession Number
39.29.17
Tags
Art Historical Context
Leonardo Alenza y Nieto’s *Ex Cathedra* (ca. 1807–45) is a delightful gem from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Drawings and Prints collection, acquired through the Dodge Fund in 9. This intimate drawing, measuring just 7-1/ x 5-1/8 inches, employs pen and dark brown ink with brush and gray-brown wash off-white paper—a technique favored by 19th-century Spanish artists for its precision and expressive shading. Alenza, a Madrid-based painter and draughtsman active during Spain’s Romantic era, was renowned for his contributions to *costumbrismo*, a movement celebrating everyday Spanish customs th...
About the Artist
Leonardo Alenza y Nieto · 1807–1845
Leonardo Alenza y Nieto (1807–1845) was a Spanish painter and caricaturist whose brief life produced a body of work remarkable for its satirical wit, psychological penetration, and painterly freedom. Born in Madrid, he trained at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, the preeminent institution for artistic education in Spain, where he absorbed the technical foundations of academic pai...