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sculptures that embodied the major trends
in Western art from the 13th to the 20th
centuries. His desire to share the aesthetic
and educational potentials of the collection
with a wider public led him to seek an
arrangement for its proper housing and dis-
play in Europe or America. His Spanish-
born wife became an important advocate
for the Spanish proposal that led to the
opening of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo
in 1992. The greater part of the collection is
housed in the former Palacio de Villaher-
mosa in M
ADRID
(near the Prado), while
approximately 10 percent of its holdings
with special resonance for Catalan cultural
history are displayed in a former monastery
near B
ARCELONA
.
The works exhibited in the Madrid
museum eschew the traditional organiza-
tion into national schools of art and are
arranged to show the transnational influ-
ences and developments in the history of
Western art. Important trends are illustrated
by works produced from the Renaissance to
recent decades, both by the famous and
lesser-known artists. A distinctive feature of
the museum is the presence of representa-
tive American artists of the 19th and 20th
centuries whose work is infrequently seen
in European collections.
his contemporaries with reinforcing moral
principles and illustrating theological
themes, his status as a member of a reli-
gious order did not restrain him from tak-
ing a lively interest in secular subjects;
indeed, the civil authorities eventually
ordered him to confine himself to more
specifically religious concerns.
His most famous play (written c. 1630)
combines an unimpeachably moral message
with an excitingly lurid story line.
El burla-
dor de Sevilla y el convidado de piedra
(
The Love
Rogue
) introduces one of the most enduring
of dramatic characters, Don Juan. Under
that name, or as Mozart's Don Giovanni, he
has remained a by-word over several centu-
ries for the arrogant seducer who is doomed
to a very bad end. Tirso de Molina presents
his Don Juan as a literally irresistible con-
queror of women, whether they be shep-
herdesses or aristocrats. Moreover he is
willing to commit murder, and the stone
guest (
convidado de piedra
) mentioned in the
title who comes to confront him is the statue
of a man he has slain. The playwright is pri-
marily concerned, however, with an even
greater sin: Don Juan's assumption that he
can manipulate God's mercy and wipe the
slate clean before he dies. As the villain is
dragged down to hell, the audience is
reminded that one cannot gamble one's fate
and assume that one is a more adroit player
than God. Tirso de Molina chose to make a
similar point, though in reverse, in an ear-
lier (c. 1620) play. The protagonist of
El con-
denado por desconfiado
(
The Saint and the
Sinner
) is Paulo, a saintly hermit who, too
presumptuously, asks to be told the circum-
stances of his death. The devil, disguised as
an angel, tells him that he will die like a
certain notorious criminal. Paulo thereupon
decides to experience all the sinful pleasures
Tirso de Molina (Gabriel Téllez)
(c. 1571-1648)
Spanish dramatist
This was the pseudonym of the Mercedar-
ian friar Gabriel Téllez. Often referred to as
the principal disciple of F
ÉLIX
L
OPE
DE
V
EGA
,
he is said to have been second only to Lope
in the number of his plays, estimated at
more than 400, of which only 80 survive.
Although he shared the general concern of
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