INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES, 1700-1808
[Sidenote: General characteristics of intellectual life in Spain and the
Americas.]
In intellectual expression, as well as in other phases of Spain’s
national life, the eighteenth century was a period of recovery from the
degradation which marked the close of the preceding era. Spain placed
herself abreast of the times, but not as formerly in a leading position;
among the many who distinguished themselves by their achievements there
were few who attained to a European reputation, and perhaps only one,
the painter Goya, may be reckoned with the immortals. On the other hand
Spain entered more definitely into the general current of western
European thought than at any previous time in her history; intellectual
activities in France reacted almost at once in Spain, and the influences
springing out of Italy and England were potent. The Americas began to
take over the intellectual side of their Spanish heritage much more
completely than before, and while not nearly approximating the mother
country in the amount or excellence of their contributions furnished
illustrious names in almost every branch worthy to stand beside those of
their contemporaries in Spain. Education there became more general, more
secular, and more highly regarded than ever before. Two obstacles,
however, were a serious check upon the development of a broad culture in
the colonies: the problems of race, reducing the number of those able to
participate, and lessening the desirability of a propaganda for the
ideal involved; and the suspicions of the Spanish-controlled government,
lest ideas convert themselves into thoughts of revolution.
[Sidenote: Progress in education.]
Cultivated Spaniards of the eighteenth century had a clear understanding
of the national problem of education, realizing (just as they did with
regard to matters having an economic bearing) the profound ignorance of
the masses and the decadent state of the institutions upon which they
had to rely to combat it. The mass of the people were not only
illiterate but also full of almost ineradicable superstitions and the
conservatism of the undeveloped mind. In 1766 Queen Amalia, the wife of
Charles III, wrote to Tanucci (one of Charles’ leading ministers while
he was king of Naples), “In everything (in Spain) there is something of
barbarism, together with great pride.” As for the women, she said, “One
does not know what to talk about with them; their ignorance is beyond
belief.” This pessimistic view finds ample corroboration in the writings
of the Benedictine Feyjóo, or Feijóo (1676-1764), and Jovellanos, both
of whom devoted themselves to the struggle against the defects in
Spanish mentality and its expression, leaving published works which
touched upon virtually every phase of the intellectual life, or its
lack, in the Iberian Peninsula. The endeavors of these men and numerous
others to regenerate the country were not wholly in obedience to the
national necessity or to patriotism, but responded also to the general
current of humanitarianism and philanthropy characteristic of the
eighteenth century. The close relationship of Spain with France during
most of the era and the conditions of peace imposed by Protestant
countries as a result of their military successes had favored the
penetration of these ideas into Spain, where they were taken up by the
well-to-do elements of the nobility, the clergy, and the wealthy middle
class. The great nobles furnished few of the illustrious names of the
period, although there were some exceptions (for example, the Count of
Fernán-Núñez and the Count of Aranda), but they gave both financial and
moral support to the efforts for intellectual reform. Some of those who
held high office, notably Godoy, aided authors in the publication of
their works or the continuation of their studies, giving them official
employment, or subsidies, or bringing out their volumes through the
royal printing establishment. Despite the characterization of them by
Queen Amalia, the women shared in the intellectual activities of the
age. Thus there was a revival of interest in education, but with a
difference from the spirit which had dominated the works of Vives and
others of the Hapsburg era; now the ideal was that of secular education
without the intervention of the clergy. Encyclopedism and monarchism
worked together to this end, while the expulsion of the Jesuits helped
greatly to make its attainment possible, although the new attitude did
not go so far as to oppose religion; indeed, that remained the basis of
primary education. All this manifested itself with especial force
beginning with the reign of Charles III, but precedents were not lacking
in earlier years. It made itself felt chiefly in the sphere of
professional training, in instruction in the humanities, and in
university education, but it did not fail to produce effects of
undoubted value on the primary schools.
[Sidenote: Efforts for the betterment of primary and secondary
education.]
Primary education, which had always received scant attention, was the
subject of some legislation under Charles III, both to expand and to
better it. To make certain of the capacity of the teachers examinations
were required of them in reading, writing, and arithmetic. In 1768
orders were given for the establishment of primary schools for girls in
the principal towns of Spain, and some of the confiscated Jesuit funds
were applied to this object. An important law of 1780 went into the
whole matter of primary education in the city of Madrid. In the early
years of the reign of Charles IV the _corregidores_ and _alcaldes_ of
all towns were ordered to inspect schools, and were requested to inquire
what towns, including those of the lords, the church, and the military
orders, lacked them or were failing to provide sufficiently for those
which they had. In 1795 the _Cortes_ of Navarre voted in favor of
compulsory education. Furthermore, private individuals followed the
example of the public authorities, and founded schools. Nevertheless,
the census of 1787 showed only about a fourth of the children between
the ages of seven and sixteen attending school. Conditions were still
very bad for the teachers, whose salaries were so small that they could
not live on them, while vexatious regulations were also a handicap to
the free development of the schools. The teachers were imbued with the
pedagogical ideas of Rousseau, while Godoy attempted to bring about the
introduction of the methods of Pestalozzi. Both Godoy and Jovellanos had
extensive plans for the spread of primary education, but political
exigencies interrupted the projects of the former, while the latter’s
brief period of rule gave hardly time enough for the execution of his
ideas. The interest of the government, of individuals, and of the
_Amigos del País_ societies in popular technical education has already
been discussed. The institutions for the study of the humanities,
roughly corresponding with the modern secondary schools (at least in
that they were a grade below the universities), were also reformed by
the government, following the expulsion of the Jesuits. In the same year
(1767) it was provided that the places of the former Jesuit teachers in
the Jesuit-taught schools of nobles and in the nineteen Jesuit colleges
should be filled by competitive examinations. In 1768 similar
institutions were ordered to be founded in such _villas_ and cities as
had no university. Meanwhile, the municipal, conventual, and private
schools continued to exist, as in earlier times; Ferdinand VI and
Charles III enacted legislation with a view to limiting their numbers
and alleviating the bad condition of some of them.
[Sidenote: Royal attempts at reform in university education.]
The twenty-four Spanish universities of this period were leading a life
of languor and scant utility down to the reign of Charles III,
struggling against the handicaps of a diminution in rents and students
and the competition of the Jesuits, More serious still was the decline
of university instruction. Studies were reduced to little more than the
memorizing of books, without any attempt at scientific investigation;
such little effort was made to keep abreast of the times that the great
University of Alcalá had in a library of seventeen thousand volumes only
some five hundred setting forth the current doctrines of other
countries; and many professorships had become sinecures for indigent
nobles. The reformers were eager to overcome these evils, and took the
course which seemed most natural in their day, that of bringing the
universities under royal control so that the benevolent state might
introduce the desired changes. In 1769 Charles III appointed a director
for each university, to whom the life of the particular institution was
to be subject; later in the same year he gave orders for a new and
better plan of studies; in 1770 a censor was added to each university by
royal appointment, with the duty of watching over the program of studies
and assuring himself of the correctness of the religious and political
views (favoring absolutism) of prospective graduates, and at the same
time the universities were asked to suggest further reforms. Most of
them delayed their replies as long as possible, for the greater number
of the university officers were opposed to change, but the king
proceeded to make reforms, nevertheless. Between 1771 and 1787 the
greater universities were subjected to such revisions of their former
methods as the following: the presentation of new courses and the
amplification of old ones; the provision of a better opportunity to win
professorships by merit; the introduction of new texts; changes in the
methods of obtaining degrees; and the virtual appointment of the rector,
or president, by the _Consejo_. Godoy and Jovellanos in the next reign
carried on the reforming spirit of the ministers of Charles III. In all
of these reforms attempts were made to better the methods of teaching as
well as the programs of study. Thus, in 1774 professors were invited to
reduce their lectures to writing and make a gift of them to their
university, and prizes were offered for the publication of new texts or
the translation of foreign volumes. Nevertheless, the majority of the
reforms produced but a slender result, for the men charged with putting
them into effect were already trained in the old ideas, finding it
impossible to enter into the spirit of the new.
[Sidenote: Special institutions of learning and scientific production.]
Possibly because they realized that the universities could not be
depended upon to solve the problem of higher education and scientific
output, the reformers created a long series of institutions of a special
character to attain these ends. Thus, schools of medicine, surgery, the
physical sciences, mathematics, jurisprudence, military art, astronomy,
engineering of various types, botany, mineralogy, natural history,
machinery, and others were founded, while a number of royal academies,
or learned societies, were established, among which may be mentioned
those of the Spanish tongue (1713), history (1738), and the fine arts
(1752). Many foreign teachers and scientists were brought to Spain, but
since any permanent advantage had to come from the efforts of Spaniards
a number of students from the peninsula were sent abroad. Similarly, the
government paid the expenses of numerous expeditions, which were largely
or often wholly for objects of a scientific character. As examples of
this phase of the state’s activity may be mentioned the visit of Juan
and Ulloa to South America in 1735 with several French academicians, to
measure various degrees of the meridian at the equator in order to
determine the shape of the earth; that of the astronomers Doz and Medina
to Baja California in 1769 in company with the Frenchman Chappe
d’Autereche, to observe the transit of Venus; and the numerous Spanish
voyages to the northwest coast of North America in the last quarter of
the eighteenth century, of which the best known, perhaps, is that of
Malaspina, who set out in 1791 to prove the existence or non-existence
of the alleged Strait of Anian through the continent of North America.
This was an age, too, of official accumulation of libraries; the royal
library, forerunner of the present-day Biblioteca Nacional, was thrown
open to the public in 1714. Archives, also, were reorganized and their
contents put in order. Such was the case with those of Simancas and the
crown of Aragon, while many documents relating to the Americas were
taken from the former in 1785 to make a beginning of the great Archivo
General de Indias at Seville. Manuscripts were utilized, as well as
merely arranged, resulting both in documented volumes and in printed
collections of papers,--such, for example, as the _España sagrada_, or
Sacred Spain (1747-1773), a collection of diplomas, chronicles,
charters, and other old manuscripts in ecclesiastical archives, with a
view to making accessible the more important materials for the history
of the church; this great work, begun by Father Flórez, eventually
reached fifty-one volumes. This period also marked the beginning of
scientific periodical literature in Spain, occasionally as the result of
private initiative, but often as a government enterprise, or at least at
state expense wholly or in part. The outbreak of the French Revolution
caused the royal authorities to suspend most of these periodicals, but
there was a return to a more liberal policy under Godoy.
[Sidenote: Slight effect of educational reforms.]
All of these efforts to rouse the nation from its intellectual lethargy
encountered such obstacles as have already been mentioned in dealing
with other phases of Spanish life in this period. Principal among them
was the ignorance of the people. Great as were the endeavors of the
reformers, they were unable to make the masses respond as quickly as
could have been wished, while even on the bourgeois and upper classes
the effect of the reforms was slight. Many interests directly opposed
the new ideas, finding danger in them for the institutions which they
represented. This was particularly true of the clergy as regards
innovations in the intellectual life of the country. The state itself,
prime mover in so many of the reforms, drew back when anything was
suggested which seemed to impinge upon the royal prerogative. In the
reign of Charles IV a distinct note of reaction began to make itself
felt, coming to its full fruition at a later time under the autocratic
Ferdinand VII.
[Sidenote: Spanish contributions to experimental science.]
One of the principal characteristics of the intellectual movement of the
eighteenth century was the reawakened interest in the experimental
sciences, representing a return to the Spanish traditions of the
sixteenth century. If Spain furnished fewer great names and achievements
at this time than formerly, nevertheless she made a notable recovery
from the low position she held at the close of the seventeenth century,
and in some respects, especially in natural science, produced men able
to rank with their contemporaries in other lands. In keeping with the
practical bent of Spanish character Spaniards were more famous for their
applications of scientific discoveries than for their contributions to
pure science. Just as in the previous era, the Americas furnished a
prominent field for scientific investigations. In the realm of botany,
perhaps more than in anything else, Spaniards distinguished themselves.
A list of the greatest names of the period would include Mutis, Mociño,
Sessé, Ruiz, Pavón, and Molina, whose works dealt with the _flora_ of
Bogotá, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Chile, especially in their
practical applications in medicine and otherwise. To their names should
be added those of Cavanilles and Sarmiento, whose writings had to do
with the _flora_ of Valencia and Galicia. Under Philip V a botanical
garden was projected, and it was founded at Madrid in the reign of
Ferdinand VI. Other cities soon followed this example. Zoology and
mineralogy were less prominently studied, and in the latter field Spain
began to make more use of foreign specialists than in the Golden Age. A
considerable impulse to the natural sciences was given by the founding,
by Charles III, of the important museum at Madrid, in which existing
collections were brought together and to which various specimens from
the Americas were added. Another factor was the sending out of
scientific expeditions, mostly in or to the Americas, in which respect,
according to the testimony of Humboldt, Spain expended more than any
other European government. Meritorious work in physics and chemistry was
also done by Spaniards,--for example, the discoveries of Ruiz de
Luzuriaga and Salvá in the realm of magnetic fluids and electricity, the
discovery of tungsten by the Elhuyar brothers, and the demonstration by
Antonio de Ulloa of the existence of platinum,--even though foreigners
were to carry these findings still further. Medicine advanced out of the
stagnation which had characterized it in the later seventeenth century,
although it continued to be in a backward state in the Americas.
[Sidenote: Mathematics and geography.]
The scientific movement of the eighteenth century reached the field of
mathematics and kindred branches, producing much valuable work, though
usually in the field of their practical applications. In the case of
mathematics the decline had even reached the point of the negation of
that science as a field for study. The Jesuits reintroduced it in their
colleges, but it remained for the ministers of Charles III to restore it
to its earlier strong footing by creating professorships of mathematics
in the universities and in the schools of higher learning devoted to
special fields. Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, better known for their
expedition to South America and their authorship of the _Noticias
secretas_, or Secret notices (not published until 1826), about
conditions there, were among those who distinguished themselves in this
subject. Geographical productivity was not so great as in the preceding
era, since colonial conquests were less far-reaching than before, but
for the single reign of Charles III there was almost as much in the way
of geographical accounts and maps as at any time in the past. The names
of Pérez, Heceta, Bodega, Ayala, Arteaga, López de Haro, Elisa, and
Fidalgo are only a few of the many who commanded expeditions in the new
world designed in part for the acquisition of geographical information,
though with political motives involved as well. In 1797 the Depósito
Hidrográfico was founded in Madrid to serve as a centre for the
preparation and storing of maps. This institution published many notable
maps of the various parts of Spain’s colonies.
[Sidenote: Philosophy.]
[Sidenote: Jurisprudence.]
[Sidenote: Economics and politics.]
Philosophical studies were influenced by the current ideas of the age.
At the outset educational institutions maintained what they termed the
traditional doctrine, which was in fact no more than the dry bones of
the past, serving only as a hindrance to the entry of anything new, even
in the field which the philosophers pretended to represent. Men
ambitious of knowledge resorted to the theories which then enjoyed high
repute in countries considered as leaders in the world of thought, and
even churchmen, who were usually among the more conservative elements,
were influenced by such of the philosophic systems as seemed least
dangerous to orthodox beliefs,--such as a certain sensationalism and
experimentation in philosophy,--and they were even affected by an
infiltration of encyclopedic ideas. This roused orthodox thinkers to an
active reaction which produced many writings of a polemic character,
although there may hardly be said to have been a veritable philosophic
renaissance. It is interesting to note, however, that even those who
combated the new ideas showed by their works that their own views were
modified by them. Only one name stands out from the rest as worthy to be
ranked with the great thinkers of other lands, that of the logician
Andrés Piquer. In jurisprudence this was a particularly flourishing
period, for juridical studies were more in keeping with the thought and
propaganda in Europe at that time. The writings of Spaniards were
directed to propagating or resisting the new juridical ideas, to the
jurisdictional struggle between state and church, to the questions
arising concerning the government of Spain and the reforms needed, and
to the preparation of manuals for the teaching of law which the
introduction of fresh materials required. The same activity was
displayed in the fields of economics and politics, as has already been
pointed out. The greatest names in these branches were those of
ministers of state like Campillo, Ward, Ensenada, Campomanes,
Floridablanca, and Jovellanos, who distinguished themselves by their
writings as well as by their acts in office. In the field of economics
Spanish thinkers, while strongly influenced by the current physiocratic
ideas, were not so completely given over to them as the economists of
other countries; they inclined toward giving an equal consideration to
industrial development, thus foreshadowing the ideas which were soon to
become supreme.
[Sidenote: Advanced state of historical studies.]
Many factors contributed to make this a brilliant period in Spanish
historical literature. Indeed, in this field of studies more than in any
other Spaniards attained to renown, even though they fell short of the
glorious achievements of the historians of the preceding era. The
disputes arising from the various aspects of eighteenth century thought
led men to look up precedents and to cite their authorities, while the
frequency with which certain writers set forth false documents
necessarily sharpened the instinct for criticism. A school of critics
sprang up which attacked errors and false statements wherever they found
them, although the intensity of religious life and the power of the
church caused most of the historians to abstain from overthrowing such
legends of a sacred character as had become firmly rooted in the popular
mind. Gregorio Mayáns and the Jesuit Masdeu were among the leading
exponents of this school. Books or articles on historical method were
frequent, and most authors of histories were wont to express their
views in the preface to their volumes. These writers, in addition to
their exposition of the rules for criticism and style, displayed a broad
concept as to the content of history, holding that it should be
expressive of the civilizations of peoples. Thus, Masdeu entitled his
history _Historia crítica de España y de la cultura española_ (Critical
history of Spain and of Spanish culture). While these ideas had been set
forth by the great writers of the sixteenth century they were now
predominantly held, both in Spain and in Europe generally. This was a
great age for the collection and publication of documents. The already
mentioned _España sagrada_ was a noteworthy example. The new Academy of
History began to perform noteworthy service in this regard. Numerous
copies were made and abundant notes taken by writers like Burriel (real
author of the _Noticia de la California_, or Account about California,
ascribed to Venegas, though a prolific writer also on subjects having
nothing to do with the Americas) and Muñoz (first archivist of the
Archivo General de las Indias and author of an _Historia del nuevo
mundo_, or History of the new world) whose materials still remain in
great part unpublished. Reprints of old editions were brought out and
foreign works translated, while vast gatherings of bibliographical data
(in the shape of catalogues, dictionaries of various types of
subject-matter, and regional or subject bibliographies) were made. Many
works of original investigation were written, like those of Masdeu and
Muñoz already cited, or the _Vida de Carlos III_ (Life of Charles III)
of Fernán-Núñez. A special group of legal and economic historians whose
writings were very important in their bearings on the times might be
made up. Martínez Marina was the principal historian of this class,
although Burriel, Asso, Capmany, Jovellanos, Llorente, Cornejo, and
Campomanes are worthy of mention. Literary history attracted the
erudite. Among the works of this group were studies concerning the
origin and history of the Castilian tongue, including the first
dictionary of the language, published by the Academy (1726-1739), with a
statement of the authorities for the sources of each word. Many of the
writings of the historians already named, besides those of numerous
others, had some reference to the Americas, but the colonies themselves
were the source of a prolific historical literature. Kino, Arlegui, Mota
Padilla, Espinosa, Villa-Señor, Ortega, Burriel, Alegre, Baegert,
Beaumont, Palou, Clavigero, Arricivita, Revilla Gigedo, and Cavo (all
dealing with New Spain, or provinces of that viceroyalty) are only a few
of the writers (most of them colonials) who left volumes which serve
today as a rich source of materials and as an enduring monument to the
names of their authors.
[Sidenote: Neo-classic influences upon polite literature.]
The regeneration of Spain made itself felt to a certain extent in the
realm of polite literature, as well as in other forms of Spanish
intellectual life. Cultivated men of letters were desirous of rescuing
Spanish literature from the vices which had fastened upon it at the
close of the seventeenth century, and they turned to the so-called
neo-classic influences then dominant in western Europe, but represented
more particularly by France. Ronsard, Montaigne, Corneille, and others
had already begun to affect Spanish writers of the seventeenth century,
and in the period of the Spanish Bourbons the works of Corneille,
Racine, Marmontel, and Voltaire were offered to Spaniards in
translation. The writings of other foreigners were in like manner made
accessible, such as those of Alfieri, Young, and Milton. So devoted were
the Spanish neo-classicists to their trans-Pyrenean models that they
were unable to see any value in the great Spanish works of the _siglo de
oro_, especially those of the dramatists. They went so far as to propose
the expulsion of the national drama from the Spanish stage (except such
works as could be arranged according to neo-classic tastes) and the
substitution of plays from the French and Italian. Among their tenets
were that of the three unities (of time, place, and action) and one
which required that the action should be reduced to the amount of time
it took to represent it. The greatest of the neo-classicists was Ignacio
de Luzán, whose _Poética_, or Poetics (1737), was the highest and most
creditable example of the doctrine of his school. Naturally, if only
from motives of patriotism, a group of nationalistic authors sprang up
in opposition to the neo-classicists and in defence of the Spanish
literature of the preceding era, but the French influence was so strong
that even this group was much affected by the precepts of the new
school. The public remained faithful to the national writers of the
_siglo de oro_, whose plays formed the principal element in theatrical
representations. Abroad, Spanish writers of the golden age still enjoyed
a repute which their countrymen were seeking to deny them. English and
German writers continued to translate or avail themselves of the works
of Cervantes and the picaresque novels, while the _Gil Blas_ of the
Frenchman Lesage was a clear-cut, if brilliant, imitation of Spanish
models. The expulsion of the Jesuits, who took up their residence in
Italy, helped to convert Italy from the Hispanophobe attitude which in
company with France she had maintained with regard to Spanish
literature, for the more learned Jesuits were able to demonstrate the
false basis of this feeling, both by their own works, and by their
exposition of the merits of the Spanish writers of the past. The German
Humboldt and the Frenchman Beaumarchais, both of them men of wide
reputation, also took up cudgels in defence of Spain.
[Sidenote: Achievements of the era in polite literature.]
Despite the vigorous conflict of the two schools of literature, Spain
was unable to produce writers who could rank with those of the _siglo de
oro_. Epic poetry practically did not exist; oratorical literature,
whether secular or religious, was of slight account; and only one
notable novel appeared in the century, the _Fray Gerundio_ (Brother
Gerund) of the Jesuit Isla. This work, which aimed to ridicule the
sacred oratory of the times, was nevertheless defective in that it
introduced much material foreign to the narrative, but it was in
excellent Spanish and teeming with witty passages. Both in this work,
and in his translation of Lesage’s _Gil Blas_, Isla won a place along
with Feyjóo as one of the best writers of the day in the handling of
Spanish prose. There were several notable lyric poets, such as Meléndez
Valdés, Nicolás Fernández de Moratín (usually termed Moratín rather than
Fernández), the latter’s son Leandro, and Quintana. Except for the
younger Moratín all belonged to the patriotic Spanish school. Quintana,
with his philanthropic and liberal note, his solemn, brilliant, and
pompous style, and the rigidity and coldness of his classical rhetoric,
was perhaps the most typical representative of the age. The most marked
achievements in the field of _belles lettres_ were in the drama. At the
beginning of the century Spanish theatres had been closed as the result
of a moral wave which left only the great cities, like Madrid,
Barcelona, Cádiz, and Valencia, with an opportunity to attend dramatical
representations. The entry of French influences and the polemics to
which they gave rise led to a revival of the drama, until it became the
favorite form of literature with both the public and the writers. Only
four dramatists may be said to have displayed unquestioned merits:
García de la Huerta, who employed a mixture of the old Spanish methods
with the newer French; the younger Moratín, the most distinguished
representative of the French school; Ramón de la Cruz, who depicted the
life of the Spanish people, and for the first time placed the customs of
the Madrid proletariat on the Spanish stage; and González del Castillo,
a worthy rival of the last-named in the same field. This was an era of
great actors, both men and women.
[Sidenote: Conflict between the baroque and neo-classic styles in
architecture and sculpture.]
The fine arts experienced the same influences and were the subject of
the same conflicts as occurred in the field of polite literature. At the
outset the baroque style in an even more exaggerated form than in the
preceding era was the principal basis of architecture. This was
vanquished by the classical reaction, born in Italy, and coming to Spain
by way of France. The new art, called neo-classic, or pseudo-classic,
endeavored to return to Roman and what were considered Greek elements,
interpreting them with an artificial and academic correctness which was
entirely lacking in sentiment and warmth. The Academy of Fine Arts
(_Bellas Artes de San Fernando_), established in the reign of Ferdinand
VI, became the stronghold of the neo-classic school, and was able to
make its views prevail, since it was the arbiter as to the style of
public buildings and the dispenser of licenses to engage in the
profession of architecture. The museum of the Prado, Madrid, the work of
Juan Villanueva, may be taken as an example of the neo-classic
edifices. In sculpture the traditional use of painted wood remained a
dominant factor throughout most of the century, although there were
evidences presaging its abandonment. While some small figures
representing popular types were made, the majority of the works of
statuary were for the church, which was by far the most important
customer of the sculptors. Some of the most notable results were those
obtained in the groups for use in the _pasos_, or floats, carried in the
processions of Holy Week. Especially meritorious were those of Salcillo,
greatest of the baroque sculptors. The profuse ornamentation of baroque
art helped to cause a continuance of the use of stone in sculpture,
since it was difficult, with wood, to procure the effects of foliage.
The baroque was soon swept away, however, in favor of the neo-classic
style, of which Álvarez was the most distinguished exponent. The same
influences, in both architecture and sculpture, operated in the Americas
as in Spain. Both arts prospered more than they had in the past.
[Sidenote: Mediocrity of Spanish painting in this era.]
[Sidenote: Greatness of Goya.]
At the close of the seventeenth century Spanish painting had fallen
away, until nothing of consequence was being done. A revival commenced
with the accession of Philip V, but the results were not great. The
entire era was filled with the dispute between French and Italian
influences. In the reign of Charles III the German painter Mengs, who
represented a kind of eclecticism which endeavored to combine the
virtues of the masters in the various Italian schools of the great era,
became the idol of Spanish artists and the arbiter of the Academy. No
Spaniard, unless possibly Bayeu and Menéndez, is even worthy of
mention,--with one glorious exception. Into an age of painting which had
sunk to mediocrity, when artists were endeavoring to treat their themes
only according to prescribed rules and manners, came Francisco José Goya
(1746-1828), the greatest painter of his time and one of the greatest of
all history, deserving of a place with Velázquez, El Greco, and Murillo,
perhaps ranking ahead of the two last-named in the list of superb
exponents of the pictorial art whom Spain has given to the world. The
keynote of his work was the free expression of his own personality,
unhampered by convention. A thorough-going realism, both in
subject-matter and in manner of treatment, was a distinctive feature of
his painting, which sought to represent character, movement, and life.
Even his religious pictures set forth matters as his own eyes saw them,
resulting in the anachronism of scenes from sacred history in which the
figures and the atmosphere were Spanish of Goya’s day. He was a most
prolific painter, leaving a vast number of portraits, ranging from those
of members or groups of the royal family from Charles III to Ferdinand
VII (notably the family of Charles IV) to persons of lesser note, some
religious paintings (which are not so convincing as his other works), an
exceptionally large number of scenes depicting popular customs (an
invaluable collection, in which respect Goya was at his best), the
stirringly patriotic pictures of the _Dos de Mayo_ in 1808 and the
executions of the following day, and the two remarkable _majas_ (the one
dressed and the other nude, each being the same person in the same
attitude). Hundreds of his cartoons are still in existence, many of them
exhibiting such freedom from convention and such unrestraint as to have
shocked his contemporaries and many others ever since. Withal he was a
most brilliant, clear, and harmonious colorist, able to get audacious
effects which were extraordinary in his day, a forerunner of the modern
schools. It is worthy of note that the Americas stepped forth in this
period to supply several notable artists comparable with those of the
age in Spain, Goya excepted.
[Sidenote: The industrial arts.]
As for the various lesser arts of an industrial character, such as the
making of furniture, articles of gold and silver, rich fabrics, and
vases, the same succession of baroque and neo-classic styles is to be
noted. Thus the furniture of the earlier years affected twisted and
grotesque forms, while it was later shaped upon stiltedly correct lines.
The azulejos industry remained in existence, making use of blue, yellow,
green, and occasionally rose. Gold work was of scant importance, but the
making of tapestries was rather notable; they were combined with the
paintings of leading artists, many of which were supplied by Goya.
[Sidenote: Spanish music.]
In the realm of music the realistic and popular indigenous type had to
contend against the Italian school. The latter found favor at court and
among the erudite, but the national product held its own with the
people, appearing especially in the plays of dramatists of the Spanish
school, such as Ramón de la Cruz. Some of the native songs were
mythological or idyllic in character, but usually they were satirical or
funny, interwoven with popular melodies and even with the musical cries
with which street vendors called out their wares, admirably adapted to
the realistic plays in which they were sung. It was to the national
Spanish music that the great foreign masters looked, and this,
therefore, was able to contribute notably to the progress of the art;
Mozart and Rossini were among the composers affected by Spanish
influences. Despite the construction at this time of magnificent organs,
religious music in Spain remained in a state of corruption and decay.
The guitar continued to be the favorite musical instrument.