Art and fossils: the illustrators of Lucas Mallada's paleontological Synopsis (1875-1892)

The Commission for the Geological Map of Spain planned a monumental work in the 19th century, the “Synopsis of the fossil species found in Spain”, in which descriptions of the characteristic fossils of geological periods had to be combined with their illustrations in a paleontographic atlas. The objective was to constitute an auxiliary tool for those people who, without reference books at their reach, could determine in a practical way the Spanish geological formations. This work, which was to be published over several years, was entrusted to the mining engineer Lucas Mallada y Pueyo. The fossil drawings were handled by three artists: Teresa Madasú, José Cebrián and Fernando de los Villares Amor. The work was never completed, but between 1875 and 1892 250 plates of Cambrian to Paleogene fossils were published, most of them (206) drawn by Teresa Madasú, who therefore stands as the pioneer of paleontological illustration in Spain.