"A la ballena y a Jonás, muy mal pintados: Quevedo coleccionista y crítico de arte"

The sonnet «A la ballena y a Jonás», number 602 in Blecua’s edition, speaks about a mysterious picture of biblical theme, painted by Eugenio Cajés and bought by Quevedo. Many reasons of reflection are connected to the direct and concrete implication of don Francisco in the poem: he can contemporaneously play the role of paintings collector, art critic and dissatisfied buyer who accounts, too late, for the mistake of his business. The author uses the painting’s theme to create an invective against Cajés and the most effective manner to declare his indignation towards the painter – the same anger showed by Jonás because of the rapidity of the Ninivitas conversion – is to the use of a sonnet, maximum expression of his cruel "pluma" and his extraordinary linguistic virtuosity. Though an interesting iconographic itinerary, the article studies the presence of the words “ballena” and “boca” in Quevedo’s work to arrive to discover the complex meanings of the poem.