We must now return to Madrid, where the example of Velazquez had
inspired a fairly numerous group of able painters without particular
genius, whose art, being entirely derivative, carried within itself
the germ of decay and sank to complete insignificance before the close
of the century. The most distinguished artist of this group is Juan
Bautista del Mazo, who has already been referred to as the author
of the _Meeting of Thirteen People_ and probably of the _Philip IV.
in Hunting Costume_. So well did he succeed in appropriating his
father-in-law’s style that his best works have frequently passed under
his illustrious master’s name.
Another important painter of the Madrid school is Carreño de Miranda
(Nos. 1614-1685), who benefited by Velazquez’s patronage, became
painter of the Palace in 1669, and Court Painter and Assistant
Seneschal in 1671. Although in his later years he devoted himself
largely to subject pictures which are distinguished by a warmer
colouring than most of the productions by the Madrid school of the
period, he achieved his greatest successes as a portrait painter. He
was considerably influenced by the paintings of Van Dyck, which he
had occasion to study in the royal palaces. His large _St. Ambrose
distributing Alms_ (No. 1702), in the La Caze Gallery, is a hurriedly
executed work which does not show his art to the best advantage. It
figured in the sale of the Soult collection, when it failed to realise
£20.
Far more typical of its author’s best manner is _The Burning Bush_ (No.
1703) by Francisco Collantes (1599-1656), a Madrid painter who studied
under Vincente Carducho, but was influenced by Bassano. He was an
excellent colourist, especially in his landscape paintings with small
figures. His most famous picture is _The Vision of Ezekiel_, formerly
at the Buen Retiro Palace and now in the Prado Gallery.
Juan de Arellano (1614-1676), the painter of the _Flowers_ (No. 1701),
worked at Madrid, unknown and in abject poverty, until at the age of
thirty-six he began to devote himself to flower-painting, a branch
of art in which he developed considerable skill, and rose to great
popularity.
Yet another Madrid painter who is but indifferently represented at the
Louvre by a still life of _Fruit and Musical Instruments_ (No. 1720)
in the La Caze collection, is Antonio Pereda (1599-1669). Although a
contemporary of Velazquez and working in the same city, he was not
appreciably influenced by that master. He was a pupil of Pedro de las
Cuevas, and his style shows certain affinities with Ribera. His works
are rarely to be met with outside the galleries and churches of his own
country.
The end of the seventeenth century marked the complete decadence of the
Spanish school, which was precipitated and received its final seal by
the advent in 1692 of the Neapolitan Luca Giordano, whose rare facility
in the production of showy, flashy, meretricious works earned for him
the sobriquet “Fa Presto,” and whose prodigious success was a powerful
incentive to emulation. More fatal even than the influence of Luca
Giordano was that of the German artist Raphael Mengs, an uninspired
eclectic who became Court Painter to Charles III., and who is referred
to in the chapter dealing with the German pictures at the Louvre.