[Depicted in Espionage Escapades, the 14th episode from the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, produced by George Lucas - released in 1999 - it’s original edit is from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles; Episode: Barcelona, May 1917 - released in 1992]
In July Indiana is stationed in Barcelona, Spain, where he learns that his assignment is to influence neutral Spain to side with the Allies. He also learns that he needs a job in the city undercover.
As he looks throughout the city for employment he stumbles upon an advertisement for the El Ballet Ruso, in which his old friend Pablo Picasso was working on it’s set design. He goes to the theatre and reunites with Picasso, who mistakes Indiana for their mutual friend Norman Rockwell.
It’s there where Picasso introduces Indiana to Sergei Diaghilev, the head of the ballet who offers him a job as a dancer. Indiana reluctantly agrees to play a eunuch in a production of Scheherazade.
The plan is to start a scandal amongst a German colonel and the count of Toledo in the spirit of romance and infidelities, yet once it’s revealed that the colonel is actually an American double agent, Indiana stops the impending duel and scraps the mission altogether.
Thus in this adventure Indiana interactions with:
Sergei Diaghilev - Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario, and founder of the Ballets Russes, the home to many famous dancers and choreographers of the time period. Originally from Saint Petersburg (during the Revolution known as Petrograd), Diaghilev traveled through Europe with his compositions and became world renowned, yet after the Revolution he was condemned by the new Soviet regime - and subsequently disregarded by art historians in his home country for more than 60 years. He was a mentor of Vaslav Nijinsky, who was also his lover who suffered from schizophrenia, yet nonetheless is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.
Pablo Picasso - considered one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, amongst his other works and triumphs he was indeed a set designer for Sergei Diaghilev, where he established a number of significant relationships with members of the Ballets Russes, among them his wife and ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova.
Norman Rockwell - an American artist who would later become famous depicting his own American culture, including decades of celebrated work for the Boy Scouts of America as well as for the Saturday Evening Post magazine. He also would go on to paint the portraits of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon - in addition to many other foreign dignitaries as well. [Picasso mistook Indiana for Rockwell considering their initial introductions in Paris almost ten years prior.
Famous art depicted in this adventure are:
Ballet Russes - widely regarded as the most influential ballet company of the 20th century, it was conceived by impresario Sergei Diaghilev and toured throughout Europe as well as North and South America, however never once in Russia where Diaghilev was born and raised. It opened doors for many prolific artists and it’s influence still lasts to this day.
Scheherazade - symphony composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, based on a compilation of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories known as One Thousand And One Nights (more popularized as The Arabian Nights). It is considered Korsakov’s most famous work and it was adapted by the Ballet Russes in Paris during the summer of 1910.
Locations in this adventure are as follows:
Barcelona - capital city of the Kingdom of Spain, founded as a Roman city in the Middle Ages it is today the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea.
Toledo - city located in Central Spain known as an ‘Imperial City’ for having been a main destination for Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, as well as “The City of Three Cultures,” for it’s historical coexistence of Christians, Muslims, and Jews. For it’s history of diversity it was declared a World Heritage Site in 1986.
Spain - officially known as the Kingdom of Spain - remained neutral in both World Wars.
