"Santa Clara¿s Rib" by Manuel León: Tribute to a century-old plant
It is rare for a plant to become the subject of an exhibition. That is what makes the collection currently hosted at Seville¿s Espacio Santa Clara so original. Seville native Manuel Leon dedicates his large-format paintings to a century-old ¿Adam¿s rib¿ that grows on the grounds, in one of the old gardens of the Santa Clara Monastery, one of the five gardens catalogued as historic in Seville.
La dirección de esta página ha sido copiada en su portapapeles
It is known as the Garden of La Torre de Don Fadrique. It is one of the five gardens catalogued as historic in Seville, but it is certainly the most hidden and least known... This is it. A "monstera deliciosa", better known as a ceriman or Adam¿s rib... It is a climbing plant from a tropical rain forest planted here a century ago, when John Talavera, architect and landscape painter, turned the old orchards of the Monastery of Santa Clara into a garden.
From the original... to the copy. A few metres from the plant, in the Espacio Santa Clara exhibition hall, an explosion of colour in the large-format paintings of Manuel Leon.
The artist's goal: to transcend a forgotten and nearly abandoned plant, which he considers a natural monument and a pictorial play --he says-- between the human and the divine.
And, as if that were not enough, among the leaves he has incorporated references to the Baroque tradition of Seville... With nods to Murillo himself, in this year in which the 400th anniversary of Murillo¿s birth is celebrated.
The rib, incidentally, was already in his early works of Fine Art. So you see how much he got out of it, in case you thought it was nothing more than a leaf...
