Rinconete y Cortadillo (Rinconete y Cortadillo)
Artist: Arturo Montero y Calvo (Spanish, 1859-1887)
Date: 1881
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain
Description
"Rinconete y Cortadillo" (or "Novela de Rinconete y Cortadillo")[ is one of the twelve short stories included in Novelas Ejemplares, by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes. It describes the comical adventures of two petty criminals as they travel to Seville and are then taken in by the city's thieves' guild. Seville at the time was a rich city with marked social contrasts, being the entrepôt of Spain and the new world of the Americas.
Plot
Two young men, Rincón and Cortado, meet at a roadside inn. They boastfully share stories of robbing and cheating fellow travelers that make it clear that they are both pícaros - wandering petty criminals - and agree to continue on together. They travel to Seville, where their petty crimes bring them to the attention of the city's thieves' guild. Rincón and Cortado are taken in by the guild, and in the second half of the story, they observe its comical organization and antics under its leader, Monipodio. As a sign of the pair's absorption into the syndicate, Monipodio gives them the affectionate nicknames of the story's title, Rinconete y Cortadillo.
