Lorca’s world, with its gypsy tragedy and black Andalusian depression, inspired the first period of Guerrero’s painting in the years after the Civil War. In 1946, Guerrero painted The Apparition, a magical, somewhat naïve picture; a scene of vigil, with mourning women beside the dead body on the ground, black crosses, strange flowers in the grass, and strange stars and angels or birds in the reddened sky. The picture is easily associated with the dark, superstitious world of Lorca’s tragedies. It could be an illustration for the dénouement of Blood Wedding, when the women receive the bodies of Leonardo and the groom at the door of the house. The mother says, “The cross, the cross,” and the women reply, “Sweet nails, sweet cross, sweet name of Jesus,” and the bride, “May the cross protect the dead and the living.” Or the final part of Poema del Cante Jondo, the “Song of El Amargo’s mother”: “The cross. No-one must cry. / El Amargo is in the moon.” The cross, the moon, the colour black, are recurring symbols in Lorca’s Andalusian poems.

GUILLERMO SOLANA