This view is a magnificent example of the prolific artistic output of this Madrid painter and printmaker, who specialised in landscapes.

From his earliest years he was keenly interested in painting. He trained at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking, where he was taught by Daniel Vázquez Díaz (1882-1969). He aligned himself with the approach of the postwar

 School of Madrid 

or Young School of Madrid, is a term coined by the art dealer and bookseller Karl Buchholz and the art critic Manuel Sánchez Camargo to name the group of Spanish painters—many of them from the Second

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

—who took part in the group exhibition held in 1945 at Galería Buchholz in Madrid. This group has sometimes been considered a mere commercial project driven by art critics and gallery owners with a view to creating a market for landscape painting.

and the

 Second

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

 

(1939-1942) the sequel to the first

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

, founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez and disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War. After the war, the art group was reborn as the so-called Second

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

. This second version was promoted, once again, by Palencia, but this time in the company of Francisco San José and a group of students from the San Fernando School of Fine Arts. The group contained most of the artists that would later make up the

 School of Madrid 

or Young School of Madrid, is a term coined by the art dealer and bookseller Karl Buchholz and the art critic Manuel Sánchez Camargo to name the group of Spanish painters—many of them from the Second

 School of Vallecas 

(1927-1936) founded in 1927 by Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez with the purpose of renewing Spanish art in line with what was happening elsewhere in Europe. Landscape became the main subject matter of this school, albeit a highly sober landscape influenced by Hispanic primitivism, fauvist colour, a surrealist approach and cubist order. The starting point was the arid, barren land on the outskirts of Madrid in the direction of Toledo, stripped of any superfluous object and worked with economic brushwork and a palette of earthy tones. This take on landscape straddled tradition and modernism. The School of Vallecas disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War, although it was the only school to rise from its ashes, reborn in the Second School of Vallecas (1939-1942).

—who took part in the group exhibition held in 1945 at Galería Buchholz in Madrid. This group has sometimes been considered a mere commercial project driven by art critics and gallery owners with a view to creating a market for landscape painting.

. The Prado museum was the meeting point for these artists and El Greco their major influence. Landscape continued being the motif par excellence, although executed in more realistic tones, far from the experimentation of the initial period—ultimately, a more restrained landscape offering a refuge from the horrors of war.

, especially through the work of Benjamín Palencia (1894-1980), whose Castilian landscapes and earthy colour palette influenced him. His two visits to Paris, in 1952 and 1961, enabled him to get to know the Post-Impressionism of Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) and Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), and the of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963), at first hand.

In this view of Antequera a certain Cézannesque influence is perceptible in the style of composition and the use of colour. It also reveals the knowledge of the landscape which he acquired on his constant travels around Spain. At this stage he was depicting a particular scene; soon afterwards he abandoned this specificity and his compositions began to be more vague and imprecise.

Arco del Nazareno, Antequera expresses a certain nostalgia. The purity of form is obvious in this plain image, devoid of decorative elements. It shows very little interest in human representation, which is confined to a few rudimentary outlines, all the emphasis of the picture being concentrated on the architecture with thick brushstrokes.