Plaza de Los Momos en Zamora

Plaza de Los Momos en Zamora 

Louis-Jules Arnout after Genaro Pérez Villaamil, 1844 

Lithograph 

The Palace of Los Momos dates from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century and was built for the regional governor Pedro Rodríguez de Ledesma and his wife Marina Herrera. Its façade is considered one of the most significant expressions of the late Gothic style in Zamora, characterised by its distinctive off-centre door with a semicircular arch, double windows, and ornamental shields, balls and chains with floral motifs. 

The front of the palace is depicted in parallel to the picture plane. The façade of the house on the right, and the row of houses receding into a street on the left, frame the area in front of the palace. The square tower of the church of San Vicente is visible in the left background. 

Nearly thirty figures in regional dress, divided into several groups, provide the scene with picturesque details. With the exception of those moving away on the far left, most of the figures are idle. In the left foreground, there is some kind of exchange taking place between a man on a mule and a woman seated on the edge of the road; nearby figures look on. In front of the house on the right, a man on a donkey is talking to a couple and their children. Among the other figures on the right, one woman stands out: she is the only one looking out, thus drawing the viewer into the scene. 

Villaamil’s view was appropriated by an anonymous lithographer in Germany around 1860. He reversed the image and his publisher, Joseph Scholz, gave the print a new title, Platz bei Alhambra, perhaps to increase its marketability. 

Title: Plaza de Los Momos en Zamora | Place de Los Momos à Zamora. 

Author/Artist: Louis-Jules Arnout (1814-1882, lithographer) after Genaro Pérez Villaamil (1807-1854, artist). 

Technique and Material: Lithograph. 

Dimensions: 290 x 400 mm (image); 525 x 375 mm (page). 

Published: Plate 82 from Genaro Pérez Villaamil and Patricio de la Escosura, España artística y monumental. Paris: A Hauser, 1842-50. Volume 2. 

Date: 1844. 

Marks and Inscriptions: Lower edge, left: ‘G.P.de Villa-Amil dibujó’ / ‘Paris chez A Hauser, boul. des Italiens, 11’; centre: title as above; right: ‘Arnout lith.’ / ‘; Imprimé par Lemercier à Paris’. 

Institution: Barry Ife Collection.