Disorderly Table
José Pérez Ruano Spanish
Not on view
Artistic ambition underlies this “messy” table, as indicated by the porte-crayon, a drawing instrument, that points to the word “FAMOSA.” Occupying most of the background plane is a page of artists' biographies, which Pérez Ruano “took” from one of the most influential treatises on the visual arts, Joachim von Sandrart’s Academia Nobilissima Artis Pictoriae (1683). The three landscape engravings are layered just so, in order to reveal the names of the printmakers whose works have been replicated; originally produced in multiples, each is here rendered unique. Attributes of masculinity—a pocketknife, cards, and a cigarette—accompany the copy of Juan Pérez de Montalbán’s 1768 story of attempted seduction and fidelity, but a book of prayers (Gozos) tops them all, closest at hand.
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