SPANISH PAINTING.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Bermudez, _Diccionario de las Bellas
Artes en España_; Davillier, _Mémoire de Velasquez_;
Davillier, _Fortuny_; Eusebi, _Los Differentes Escuelas de
Pintura_; Ford, _Handbook of Spain_; Head, _History of
Spanish and French Schools of Painting_; Justi, _Velasquez
and his Times_; Lefort, _Velasquez_; Lefort, _Francisco
Goya_; Lefort, _Murillo et son École_; Lefort, _La Peinture
Espagnole_; Palomino de Castro y Velasco, _Vidas de los
Pintores y Estatuarios Eminentes Españoles_; Passavant, _Die
Christliche Kunst in Spanien_; Plon, _Les Maîtres Italiens
au Service de la Maison d'Autriche_; Stevenson, _Velasquez_;
Stirling, _Annals of the Artists of Spain_; Stirling,
_Velasquez and his Works_; Tubino, _El Arte y los Artistas
contemporáneos en la Peninsula_; Tubino, _Murillo_; Viardot,
_Notices sur les Principaux Peintres de l'Espagne_; Yriarte,
_Goya, sa Biographie_, etc.
SPANISH ART MOTIVES: What may have been the early art of Spain we are
at a loss to conjecture. The reigns of the Moor, the Iconoclast, and,
finally, the Inquisitor, have left little that dates before the
fourteenth century. The miniatures and sacred relics treasured in the
churches and said to be of the apostolic period, show the traces of a
much later date and a foreign origin. Even when we come down to the
fifteenth century and meet with art produced in Spain, we have a
following of Italy or the Netherlands. In methods and technic it was
derivative more than original, though almost from the beginning
peculiarly Spanish in spirit.
[Illustration: FIG. 69.--SANCHEZ COELLO. CLARA EUGENIA, DAUGHTER OF
PHILIP II. MADRID.]
That spirit was a dark and savage one, a something that cringed under
the lash of the Church, bowed before the Inquisition, and played the
executioner with the paint-brush. The bulk of Spanish art was Church
art, done under ecclesiastical domination, and done in form without
question or protest. The religious subject ruled. True enough, there
was portraiture of nobility, and under Philip and Velasquez a
half-monarchical art of military scenes and _genre_; but this was not
the bent of Spanish painting as a whole. Even in late days, when
Velasquez was reflecting the haughty court, Murillo was more widely
and nationally reflecting the believing provinces and the Church
faith of the people. It is safe to say, in a general way, that the
Church was responsible for Spanish art, and that religion was its
chief motive.
There was no revived antique, little of the nude or the pagan, little
of consequence in landscape, little, until Velasquez's time, of the
real and the actual. An ascetic view of life, faith, and the hereafter
prevailed. The pietistic, the fervent, and the devout were not so
conspicuous as the morose, the ghastly, and the horrible. The saints
and martyrs, the crucifixions and violent deaths, were eloquent of the
torture-chamber. It was more ecclesiasticism by blood and violence
than Christianity by peace and love. And Spain welcomed this. For of
all the children of the Church she was the most faithful to rule,
crushing out heresy with an iron hand, gaining strength from the
Catholic reaction, and upholding the Jesuits and the Inquisition.
METHODS OF PAINTING: Spanish art worthy of mention did not appear
until the fifteenth century. At that time Spain was in close relations
with the Netherlands, and Flemish painting was somewhat followed. How
much the methods of the Van Eycks influenced Spain would be hard to
determine, especially as these Northern methods were mixed with
influences coming from Italy. Finally, the Italian example prevailed
by reason of Spanish students in Italy and Italian painters in Spain.
Florentine line, Venetian color, and Neapolitan light-and-shade ruled
almost everywhere, and it was not until the time of Velasquez--the
period just before the eighteenth-century decline--that distinctly
Spanish methods, founded on nature, really came forcibly to the front.
SPANISH SCHOOLS OF PAINTING: There is difficulty in classifying these
schools of painting because our present knowledge of them is limited.
Isolated somewhat from the rest of Europe, the Spanish painters have
never been critically studied as the Italians have been, and what is
at present known about the schools must be accepted subject to
critical revision hereafter.
[Illustration: FIG. 70.--MURILLO. ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA. BERLIN.]
The earliest school seems to have been made up from a gathering of
artists at Toledo, who limned, carved, and gilded in the cathedral;
but this school was not of long duration. It was merged into the
Castilian school, which, after the building of Madrid, made its home
in that capital and drew its forces from the towns of Toledo,
Valladolid, and Badajoz. The Andalusian school, which rose about the
middle of the sixteenth century, was made up from the local schools of
Seville, Cordova, and Granada. The Valencian school, to the
southeast, rose about the same time, and was finally merged into the
Andalusian. The Aragonese school, to the east, was small and of no
great consequence, though existing in a feeble way to the end of the
seventeenth century. The painters of these schools are not very
strongly marked apart by methods or school traditions, and perhaps the
divisions would better be looked upon as more geographical than
otherwise. None of the schools really began before the sixteenth
century, though there are names of artists and some extant pictures
before that date, and with the seventeenth century all art in Spain
seems to have centred about Madrid.
Spanish painting started into life concurrently with the rise to
prominence of Spain as a political kingdom. What, if any, direct
effect the maritime discoveries, the conquests of Granada and Naples,
the growth of literature, and the decline of Italy, may have had upon
Spanish painting can only be conjectured; but certainly the sudden
advance of the nation politically and socially was paralleled by the
advance of its art.
THE CASTILIAN SCHOOL: This school probably had no so-called founder.
It was a growth from early art traditions at Toledo, and afterward
became the chief school of the kingdom owing to the patronage of
Philip II. and Philip IV. at Madrid. The first painter of importance
in the school seems to have been Antonio Rincon (1446?-1500?). He is
sometimes spoken of as the father of Spanish painting, and as having
studied in Italy with Castagno and Ghirlandajo, but there is little
foundation for either statement. He painted chiefly at Toledo, painted
portraits of Ferdinand and Isabella, and had some skill in hard
drawing. Berruguete (1480?-1561) studied with Michael Angelo, and is
supposed to have helped him in the Vatican. He afterward returned to
Spain, painted many altar-pieces, and was patronized as painter,
sculptor, and architect by Charles V. and Philip II. He was probably
the first to introduce pure Italian methods into Spain, with some
coldness and dryness of coloring and handling. Becerra (1520?-1570)
was born in Andalusia, but worked in Castile, and was a man of Italian
training similar to Berruguete. He was an exceptional man, perhaps, in
his use of mythological themes and nude figures.
There is not a great deal known about Morales (1509?-1586), called
"the Divine," except that he was allied to the Castilian school, and
painted devotional heads of Christ with the crown of thorns, and many
afflicted and weeping madonnas. There was Florentine drawing in his
work, great regard for finish, and something of Correggio's softness
in shadows pitched in a browner key. His sentiment was rather
exaggerated. Sanchez-Coello (1513?-1590) was painter and courtier to
Philip II., and achieved reputation as a portrait-painter, though also
doing some altar-pieces. It is doubtful whether he ever studied in
Italy, but in Spain he was for a time with Antonio Moro, and probably
learned from him something of rich costumes, ermines, embroideries,
and jewels, for which his portraits were remarkable. Navarette
(1526?-1579), called "El Mudo" (the dumb one), certainly was in Italy
for something like twenty years, and was there a disciple of Titian,
from whom he doubtless learned much of color and the free flow of
draperies. He was one of the best of the middle-period painters.
Theotocopuli (1548?-1625), called "El Greco" (the Greek), was another
Venetian-influenced painter, with enough Spanish originality about him
to make most of his pictures striking in color and drawing. Tristan
(1586-1640) was his best follower.
[Illustration: FIG. 71.--RIBERA. ST. AGNES. DRESDEN.]
Velasquez (1599-1660) is the greatest name in the history of Spanish
painting. With him Spanish art took upon itself a decidedly
naturalistic and national stamp. Before his time Italy had been freely
imitated; but though Velasquez himself was in Italy for quite a long
time, and intimately acquainted with great Italian art, he never
seemed to have been led away from his own individual way of seeing and
doing. He was a pupil of Herrera, afterward with Pacheco, and learned
much from Ribera and Tristan, but more from a direct study of nature
than from all the others. He was in a broad sense a realist--a man who
recorded the material and the actual without emendation or
transposition. He has never been surpassed in giving the solidity and
substance of form and the placing of objects in atmosphere. And this,
not in a small, finical way, but with a breadth of view and of
treatment which are to-day the despair of painters. There was nothing
of the ethereal, the spiritual, the pietistic, or the pathetic about
him. He never for a moment left the firm basis of reality. Standing
upon earth he recorded the truths of the earth, but in their largest,
fullest, most universal forms.
Technically his was a master-hand, doing all things with ease, giving
exact relations of colors and lights, and placing everything so
perfectly that no addition or alteration is thought of. With the brush
he was light, easy, sure. The surface looks as though touched once, no
more. It is the perfection of handling through its simplicity and
certainty, and has not the slightest trace of affectation or
mannerism. He was one of the few Spanish painters who were enabled to
shake off the yoke of the Church. Few of his canvases are religious in
subject. Under royal patronage he passed almost all of his life in
painting portraits of the royal family, ministers of state, and great
dignitaries. As a portrait-painter he is more widely known than as a
figure-painter. Nevertheless he did many canvases like The Tapestry
Weavers and The Surrender at Breda, which attest his remarkable genius
in that field; and even in landscape, in _genre_, in animal painting,
he was a very superior man. In fact Velasquez is one of the few great
painters in European history for whom there is nothing but praise. He
was the full-rounded complete painter, intensely individual and
self-assertive, and yet in his art recording in a broad way the
Spanish type and life. He was the climax of Spanish painting, and
after him there was a rather swift decline, as had been the case in
the Italian schools.
Mazo (1610?-1667), pupil and son-in-law of Velasquez, was one of his
most facile imitators, and Carreño de Miranda (1614-1685) was
influenced by Velasquez, and for a time his assistant. The Castilian
school may be said to have closed with these late men and with Claudio
Coello (1635?-1693), a painter with a style founded on Titian and
Rubens, whose best work was of extraordinary power. Spanish painting
went out with Spanish power, and only isolated men of small rank
remained.
ANDALUSIAN SCHOOL: This school came into existence about the middle of
the sixteenth century. Its chief centre was at Seville, and its chief
patron the Church rather than the king. Vargas (1502-1568) was
probably the real founder of the school, though De Castro (fl. 1454)
and others preceded him. Vargas was a man of much reputation and
ability in his time, and introduced Italian methods and elegance into
the Andalusian school after twenty odd years of residence in Italy. He
is said to have studied under Perino del Vaga, and there is some
sweetness of face and grace of form about his work that point that
way, though his composition suggests Correggio. Most of his frescos
have perished; some of his canvases are still in existence.
Cespedes (1538?-1608) is little known through extant works, but he
achieved fame in many departments during his life, and is said to have
been in Italy under Florentine influence. His coloring was rather
cold, and his drawing large and flat. The best early painter of the
school was Roelas (1558?-1625), the inspirer of Murillo and the master
of Zurbaran. He is supposed to have studied at Venice, because of his
rich, glowing color. Most of his works are religious and are found
chiefly at Seville. He was greatly patronized by the Jesuits. Pacheco
(1571-1654) was more of a pedant than a painter, a man of rule, who
to-day might be written down an academician. His drawing was hard, and
perhaps the best reason for his being remembered is that he was one of
the masters and the father-in-law of Velasquez. His rival, Herrera the
Elder (1576?-1656) was a stronger man--in fact, the most original
artist of his school. He struck off by himself and created a bold
realism with a broad brush that anticipated Velasquez--in fact,
Velasquez was under him for a time.
The pure Spanish school in Andalusia, as distinct from Italian
imitation, may be said to have started with Herrera. It was further
advanced by another independent painter, Zurbaran (1598-1662), a pupil
of Roelas. He was a painter of the emaciated monk in ecstasy, and many
other rather dismal religious subjects expressive of tortured rapture.
From using a rather dark shadow he acquired the name of the Spanish
Caravaggio. He had a good deal of Caravaggio's strength, together with
a depth and breadth of color suggestive of the Venetians. Cano
(1601-1667), though he never was in Italy, had the name of the Spanish
Michael Angelo, probably because he was sculptor, painter, and
architect. His painting was rather sharp in line and statuesque in
pose, with a coloring somewhat like that of Van Dyck. It was eclectic
rather than original work.
[Illustration: FIG. 72.--FORTUNY. SPANISH MARRIAGE.]
Murillo (1618-1682) is generally placed at the head of the Andalusian
school, as Velasquez at the head of the Castilian. There is good
reason for it, for though Murillo was not the great painter he was
sometime supposed, yet he was not the weak man his modern critics
would make him out. A religious painter largely, though doing some
_genre_ subjects like his beggar-boy groups, he sought for religious
fervor and found, only too often, sentimentality. His madonnas are
usually after the Carlo Dolci pattern, though never so excessive in
sentiment. This was not the case with his earlier works, mostly of
humble life, which were painted in rather a hard, positive manner.
Later on he became misty, veiled in light and effeminate in outline,
though still holding grace. His color varied with his early and later
styles. It was usually gay and a little thin. While basing his work on
nature like Velasquez, he never had the supreme poise of that master,
either mentally or technically; howbeit he was an excellent painter,
who perhaps justly holds second place in Spanish art.
SCHOOL OF VALENCIA: This school rose contemporary with the Andalusian
school, into which it was finally merged after the importance of
Madrid had been established. It was largely modelled upon Italian
painting, as indeed were all the schools of Spain at the start. Juan
de Joanes (1507?-1579) apparently was its founder, a man who painted a
good portrait, but in other respects was only a fair imitator of
Raphael, whom he had studied at Rome. A stronger man was Francisco de
Ribalta (1550?-1628), who was for a time in Italy under the Caracci,
and learned from them free draughtsmanship and elaborate composition.
He was also fond of Sebastiano del Piombo, and in his best works (at
Valencia) reflected him. Ribalta gave an early training to Ribera
(1588-1656), who was the most important man of this school. In reality
Ribera was more Italian than Valencian, for he spent the greater part
of his life in Italy, where he was called Lo Spagnoletto, and was
greatly influenced by Caravaggio. He was a Spaniard in the horrible
subjects that he chose, but in coarse strength of line, heaviness of
shadows, harsh handling of the brush, he was a true Neapolitan
Darkling. A pronounced mannerist he was no less a man of strength, and
even in his shadow-saturated colors a painter with the color instinct.
In Italy his influence in the time of the Decadence was wide-spread,
and in Spain his Italian pupil, Giordano, introduced his methods for
late imitation. There were no other men of much rank in the Valencian
school, and, as has been said, the school was eventually merged in
Andalusian painting.
EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING IN SPAIN: Almost directly
after the passing of Velasquez and Murillo Spanish art failed. The
eighteenth-century, as in Italy, was quite barren of any considerable
art until near its close. Then Goya (1746-1828) seems to have made a
partial restoration of painting. He was a man of peculiarly Spanish
turn of mind, fond of the brutal and the bloody, picturing inquisition
scenes, bull-fights, battle pieces, and revelling in caricature,
sarcasm, and ridicule. His imagination was grotesque and horrible, but
as a painter his art was based on the natural, and was exceedingly
strong. In brush-work he followed Velasquez; in a peculiar forcing of
contrasts in light and dark he was apparently quite himself, though
possibly influenced by Ribera's work. His best work shows in his
portraits and etchings.
After Goya's death Spanish art, such as it was, rather followed
France, with the extravagant classicism of David as a model. What was
produced may be seen to this day in the Madrid Museum. It does not
call for mention here. About the beginning of the 1860's Spanish
painting made a new advance with Mariano Fortuny (1838-1874). In his
early years he worked at historical painting, but later on he went to
Algiers and Rome, finding his true vent in a bright sparkling painting
of _genre_ subjects, oriental scenes, streets, interiors, single
figures, and the like. He excelled in color, sunlight effects, and
particularly in a vivacious facile handling of the brush. His work is
brilliant, and in his late productions often spotty from excessive
use of points of light in high color. He was a technician of much
brilliancy and originality, his work exciting great admiration in his
day, and leading the younger painters of Spain into that ornate
handling visible in their works at the present time. Many of these
latter, from association with art and artists in Paris, have adopted
French methods, and hardly show such a thing as Spanish nationality.
Fortuny's brother-in-law, Madrazo (1841-), is an example of a Spanish
painter turned French in his methods--a facile and brilliant
portrait-painter. Zamacois (1842-1871) died early, but with a
reputation as a successful portrayer of seventeenth-century subjects a
little after the style of Meissonier and not unlike Gérôme. He was a
good colorist and an excellent painter of textures.
[Illustration: FIG. 73.--MADRAZO, UNMASKED.]
The historical scene of Mediæval or Renaissance times, pageants and
fêtes with rich costume, fine architecture and vivid effects of color,
are characteristic of a number of the modern Spaniards--Villegas,
Pradilla, Alvarez. As a general thing their canvases are a little
flashy, likely to please at first sight but grow wearisome after a
time. Palmaroli has a style that resembles a mixture of Fortuny and
Meissonier; and some other painters, like Luis Jiminez Aranda,
Sorolla, Zuloaga, Anglada, Garcia y Remos, Vierge, Roman Ribera, and
Domingo, have done excellent work. In landscape and Venetian scenes
Rico leads among the Spaniards with a vivacity and brightness not
always seen to good advantage in his late canvases.
PRINCIPAL WORKS: Generally speaking, Spanish art cannot be
seen to advantage outside of Spain. Both its ancient and
modern masterpieces are at Madrid, Seville, Toledo, and
elsewhere. The Royal Gallery at Madrid has the most and the
best examples.
CASTILIAN SCHOOL--Rincon, altar-piece church of Robleda de
Chavilla; Berruguete, altar-pieces Saragossa, Valladolid,
Madrid, Toledo; Morales, Madrid and Louvre; Sanchez-Coello,
Madrid and Brussels Mus.; Navarette, Escorial, Madrid, St.
Petersburg; Theotocopuli, Cathedral and S. Tomé Toledo,
Madrid Mus.; Velasquez, best works in Madrid Mus., Escorial,
Salamanca, Montpensier Gals., Nat. Gal. Lon., Infanta
Marguerita Louvre, Borro portrait (?) Berlin, Innocent X.
Doria Rome; Mazo, landscapes Madrid Mus.; Carreño de
Miranda, Madrid Mus.; Claudio Coello, Escorial, Madrid,
Brussels, Berlin, and Munich Mus.
ANDALUSIAN SCHOOL--Vargas, Seville Cathedral; Cespedes,
Cordova Cathedral; Roelas, S. Isidore Cathedral, Museum
Seville; Pacheco, Madrid Mus.; Herrera, Seville Cathedral
and Mus. and Archbishop's Palace, Dresden Mus.; Zurbaran,
Seville Cathedral and Mus. Madrid, Dresden, Louvre, Nat.
Gal. Lon.; Cano, Madrid, Seville Mus. and Cathedral, Berlin,
Dresden, Munich; Murillo, best pictures in Madrid Mus. and
Acad. of S. Fernando Madrid, Seville Mus. Hospital and
Capuchin Church, Louvre, Nat. Gal. Lon., Dresden, Munich,
Hermitage.
VALENCIAN SCHOOL--Juan de Joanes, Madrid Mus., Cathedral
Valencia, Hermitage; Ribalta, Madrid and Valencian Mus.,
Hermitage; Ribera, Louvre, Nat. Gal. Lon., Dresden, Naples,
Hermitage, and other European museums, chief works at
Madrid.
MODERN MEN AND THEIR WORKS--Goya, Madrid Mus., Acad. of S.
Fernando, Valencian Cathedral and Mus., two portraits in
Louvre. The works of the contemporary painters are largely
in private hands where reference to them is of little use to
the average student. Thirty Fortunys are in the collection
of William H. Stewart in Paris. His best work, The Spanish
Marriage, belongs to Madame de Cassin, in Paris. Examples of
Villegas, Madrazo, Rico, Domingo, and others, in the
Vanderbilt Gallery, Metropolitan Mus., New York; Boston,
Chicago, and Philadelphia Mus.