Untimely Visit

The Untimely Visit was probably painted during a brief sojourn of Zamacois in Rome in 1868, and depicts the moment an ecclesiastic made an unexpected visit to a painter’s workshop, set in the 18th century. The artist portrayed in this picture, who happens to be painting a female nude, gets rid of his unforeseen guest while his model covers herself in a gesture of modesty. After his trip to Rome Zamacois was greatly acclaimed for such scenes, in which by means of embarrassing situations he ridiculed the ecclesiastical world. Furthermore, the picture reflects his predilection for the representation of interiors, in vogue at the time, which enabled him to arrange the compositional elements in a well-balanced fashion.