Plaza de Espana, Seville: Rowing Boats on the Canal in Afternoon Sun
A rowing boat slides along the canal of the Plaza de España while the afternoon sun lights up the whole brick-and-tile crescent behind it. A painted bridge arches over the water, a stone column rises in the foreground, and the towers of the building stand against a clear blue sky. This is Seville at its most theatrical: a square built to impress the world, still doing exactly that.
Photographer: Sapiens Verbum (Pablo Avanzini)
Subject: Rowing boats on the canal of the Plaza de España, with a tiled bridge and the main building in afternoon light
Location: Plaza de España, Parque de María Luisa, Seville, Andalusia, Spain
Medium: Photograph – Colour
Series: Andalusia
The Plaza de España was designed by the Sevillian architect Aníbal González as the centrepiece of the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, on the edge of the María Luisa Park. Its half-moon shape is meant to read as an embrace between Spain and the Americas. Along the base of the building runs a sequence of tiled alcoves, one for each Spanish province, and in front of them a canal is crossed by bridges decorated with glazed ceramics, the craft for which Seville's Triana district is famous.
The photograph works in layers. The column and balustrade in the foreground frame the view, the boat and its ripples carry the eye along the water, and the bridge leads it up to the façade and its towers. Low, warm sunlight picks out the brick and tile, while the canal holds a darker, cooler reflection, so the whole scene has the depth of a stage set.
Most visitors photograph the square from the centre; this view from the canal edge gives something more personal: the pace of the place on an ordinary afternoon, with people out on the water and the grandest building in Seville as a backdrop.
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Part of the Andalusia series.
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