The poster competition for the festivity of Santa Bárbara in 1923. Military and artistic training at the Artillery Academy of Segovia

Abstract

This manuscript highlights the importance given to humanistic, artistic and cultural training in the study plans of the Academy of Artillery at the beginning of the 20th century. Thus, through the discovery of a unique collection of postcards, the reproductions considered from the posters, and the creation motivated the celebration of Santa Barbara in 1923, it has been possible to demonstrate the high level in artistic drawing that acquired the cadets of the institution . In this sense, the relationships and similarities that the pieces analyzed guarded with Art Deco and artistic phenomena like El Cartel, allowed comparisons with the works of such prestigious painters and posters as were Ribas, Penagos and Bartolozzi. In addition, this collection is nowadays one of the last vestiges with its own authenticity that mark a before and after in the type of formation of the Artillery Academy, for that reason clearly humanist, and that changed irreversibly from entry of the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, which brought with it the great quality of the military teaching of the body and its submission a pedagogical style of marked authoritarian and belligerent character.