Author: Alfonso Domingo
- Fiction
- Algaida Editores
- ISBN: 9788498777161
- Release Date: 03-30-2012
-Reviewed by: Eduardo de Lamadrid
Alfonso Domingo's El espejo negro won the Ateneo de Sevilla XLIII Prize for the Novel. Standing midpoint between a historical novel and a thriller, this novel recounts the story of different lives united by a common pictorial passion: Hieronymus Bosch. The story is told from various points of view, by the artist himself (15th century), by emissaries of Philip II (16th century), by collectors (end of 19th century and first half of 20th century), and by a scholar who specializes in medieval art and works for the Prado museum (21st century).
Of the historical periods involved, perhaps the most interesting is the one that relates the central years in the life of the artist. The author, who obviously has thoroughly researched and documented the events in question, expertly recreates the artist's universe and takes us into the world of Bosch, describing his city, his workshop, his media, and many of his works. The narrative voices include that of Bosch himself, and letters that describe his artistic trajectory. Another historical period, the least important in the novel, takes us to the reign of Philip II and focuses on the monarch's personality, and is also related in epistolary form by his ambassadors to the courts of Europe. Yet another period involves a radical change, taking us to Holland and Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Finally, there is the present, where the thriller is played out.
The story begins and ends with a game of cards, a metaphor for life that prepares us for what is about to happen. We first meet Jerónimo Díaz, an anarchist painter exiled in Paris after the Spanish Civil War. There he will meet a mysterious character who will send him on the adventure of his life and to Amsterdam to copy an unknown painting that will become his obsession, Jonah and the Whale by Hieronymus Bosch. However, the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of Holland by the Nazis will endanger his work, his personal security and the people whom he loves because of that mysterious painting and the alchemical secret hidden within it. Elsewhere in the novel, seventy years later we meet the medieval art expert Javier Carreño, commissioned by the Prado museum to curate a very important exhibition of Bosch's works. Carreño leads a boring, gray, academic life that is suddenly overturned by a fortuitous encounter with a young female painter, Himiko, who will be the nexus between that young painter who survived the Spanish Civil War and the Nazi concentration camps and the enigmatic work of the Flemish painter. Although the two stories are narrated together, and interspersed with episodes from the lives of Bosch and Philip II, there is no confusion in the reader's mind.
The novel mixes esotericism, tarot and alchemy with Nazism and the dark economic interests which have always plagued mortals. It offers, in addition, a perspective on a considerable portion of European history, visiting some of its most emblematic cities, imperial Madrid, Venice, Amsterdam and Paris, among others.
The plot has been expertly constructed and the story is fast paced, but not furiously so, and never becomes a roller coaster without sense or meaning. Although the documentation is thorough, the author rarely succumbs to the temptation of explaining more than what the narrative requires.
In short, Domingo uses the bases of the historical thriller genre and adds a more deliberate style, a better design, and meticulous research.
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