The School of Madrid

a OF CALIFORNIA ANGELES ; THE SCHOOL OF MADRID s 3 ! THE SCHOOL OF MADRID BY A. DE BERUETE Y MORET LONDON: DUCKWORTH AND CO. NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1909 This book has been translated from the Author's original manuscript by Mrs. Steuart E/rskine Art Library UH PREFATORY NOTE (By the Editor of the Series) : THE name of Beruete is too well known to need any ^ special introduction. English readers are familiar with the great work of Aureliano de Beruete on Velazquez and the father well (Paris, 1898 ; London, 1906), may to stand sponsor for the son, who in the following pages 2 befittingly takes up the later periods of Spanish paint- _. ing in Madrid. Seiior de Beruete y Moret explains g in his short Preface why he omits, as superfluous now, ~ any but a brief introductory account of Velazquez ; yet even upon the supreme master he incidentally sheds fresh light. His aim, as he tells us, is to penetrate the terra incognita which has hitherto surrounded ^ Velazquez (p. 54), to bring out of its enveloping mists into the full daylight those pupils and followers of Velazquez, and certain contemporaries, whose works had been confused with those of the master, whose ceuvre had been merged by history in that of the more dominating personality. The result of these investiga- tions is twofold : the personality of Velazquez stands 259628 vi PREFATORY NOTE out clear and disencumbered from all spurious matter, and at the same time are we introduced to an interesting, nay brilliant, artistic circle, that deserved, as Senor de Beruete easily convinces us, to be rescued from obli- vion. Those, perhaps the majority, to whom the name of Velazquez is alone familiar among the painters of Madrid will read with eager interest of del Mazo, pupil and son-in-law of Velazquez, of Carreno, and of those other pupils, or, rather, successors, of Velazquez (for of pupils in the strict sense of the word he had but few, as Senor de Beruete reminds us) who carried on, with such changes as their several individualities imposed, the great tradition. Senor de Beruete y Moret carries the history of Spanish painting since Velazquez down to the time of its decline under the alien influence of the Italian Luca di Giordano, content to leave it with a bare reminder of the later striking personality, Francisco Goya, who was again to raise it from a period of poverty to one of rare distinction. In this tale of Spanish painting we are introduced, besides, to one of the two forms in which, as the author says, Spanish national life finds most typical expression, and the one more readily com- in prehensible, its universal medium, to the foreign student, since the other, which is drama, is veiled by difference of language. PREFATORY NOTE vii Thus this book, which coincides with the recent reawakening of interest in the art of the seventeenth century, is certain of cordial welcome, alike for the breadth and originality of the author's views and the profundity of his learning. Of the illustrations many of them of works now made known for the first time three call for special mention here. They reproduce celebrated paintings in English collections once unhesitatingly given to Velazquez, but claimed by Senor de Beruete y Moret, as by his illustrious father before him, for the pupil and son-in-law del Mazo. The portrait of Admiral Adrian Pulido-Pareja, indeed, had from the day of its entrance into the National Gallery failed to satisfy the highest standards of Velazquez criticism. On the other hand, the lovely sketch of a Lady with a Mantilla, at Devonshire House, to which the name of del Mazo is now attached, vies even so, in the judgment of dis- tinguished critics, with its more finished but not more fascinating double, the Lady with a Fan, in the Wallace Collection. The third masterpiece transferred to the lesser painter is the Prince Balthazar Carlos in the Riding School, at Grosvenor House, which Senor de Beruete, in spite of his evident admiration of its beauties, finds unworthy of Velazquez. He cannot viii PREFATORY NOTE believe (p. 70) that the composition could have originated in the same brain as the famous equestrian portrait of the little Prince (Prado). Whoever the artist, the " " wonderful sketch remains one of the most exquisite and characteristic productions of the Spanish genius. It is well worth to compare with Senor de Beruete's own subtle appreciation the closing words of Arthur Strongs description of the same picture (Critical Studies, p. 81) : Each of the figures is set with unerring dexterity in its just proportion of size and gradation of tone in a fluent medium of air. The building keeps its true distance without, as in the case of so many Dutch views, dwarfing the figures into insignificance. The execution is so rapid, and the impression given so momentary, that here, if anywhere, Velazquez seems, as Reynolds says of him, to paint with his will. Nothing seems to be employed but light and shadow : yet out of these he has evolved the whole illusion of depth and surface. The brilliant young Spanish critic who has enriched our knowledge of Spanish art by his reconstruction of another figure, besides Velazquez, capable of painting so admirable a work as the Riding School deserves the gratitude of all students of art and of history. Senor de Beruete y Moret has assuredly made good his " assertion (p. 55) that to Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo must be given an important place in the history of Spanish art." E. S. LONDON, March 1909. AUTHOR'S PREFACE THE interest which the personality and the work of Velazquez excite to-day in the artistic world is now extended to his surroundings and to the conditions of life in which his was style developed ; and, above all, to his artistic offspring. Velazquez has been studied from the artistic, the biographical and the technical point of view by so many critics who have considered the subject exhaustively, if not definitely there being nothing absolutely definitive in art criticism that we propose to abandon the study of this painter, as we could do no more than repeat what others have said already with more knowledge and with more authority than we can claim. With this view we have resolved to search out data and personally to investigate facts about those painters, some contemporaries of the master and some his successors, who gave dignity, a definite character and fame to the School of Madrid. Before the time of Velazquez, the artistic output of ix x PREFACE the capital of Spain did not constitute a school, for neither the Court portrait painters nor the few other artists who worked in Madrid and who were generally of foreign origin and influenced by foreign ideals, had sufficient strength of character to effect so much. Velazquez gave the impetus and inaugurated that great period of painting which lasted from 1623, the year in which he arrived at Court, until the end of the seventeenth century when the death of Claudio Coello and the rapid decadence of national art put an end to that essentially pure and Spanish development to give place to one which was imitative and of foreign origin. Generally speaking, this sketch is confined to the II. reigns of Philip IV. and of Charles ; reigns of decadence and of political ruin for Spain, in which misfortunes of every sort succeeded each other with incredible rapidity and without giving a moment's respite to the depressed spirit of the nation. Notwith- standing this, Spain showed signs of vitality in her artistic production, for these were the days of Velazquez and of Calderon ; these names alone will be sufficient to show the vitality of the race and to demonstrate that the nation which can produce such genius has sufficient vigour and originality to begin again and to continue her career, whatever catastrophes she may have to suffer. PREFACE xi We propose to speak of all those painters of the school who are of interest, but we wish to give a prior claim to those who were in direct communication with Velazquez. For this reason we shall speak very par- ticularly of Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo, whose life is linked with that of the master and whose works have not yet been studied in detail. It is our earnest desire that the study of Spanish art, which is so should be facilitated now much appreciated, ; that from amongst the many styles of painting in which the Spanish people have excelled in different districts and in different centuries, the student may learn to recognise, to distinguish and to appreciate the work of those painters of the town and the Court who worked during the reigns of the last two monarchs of the House of Austria and who formed the interesting and the little known School of Madrid. A. DE B. Y M. MADRID, 1909. CONTENTS CHAPTER ftiCE. I. THE CONDITION OF SPANISH ART AT THE RISK OF THE SCHOOL OF MADRID ... I II. THE TOWN AND COURT OF MADRID . 17 III. PAINTING IN MADRID BEFORE VELAZQUEZ . 27 IV. VELAZQUEZ. GENERAL SKETCH OF THE SCHOOL OF MADRID SINCE VELAZQUEZ ... 39 V. MAZO ...... -52 VI. MAZO (continued) ...... 84 VII. MAZO (concluded) ...... 106 VIII. OTHER PUPILS OF VELAZQUEZ . 131 IX. PEREDA COLLANTES LEONARDO OTHER PAINTERS WHO FLOURISHED IN MADRID ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 144 X. THE BROTHERS RIZI ..... 158 xiii xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGB XI. CARRENO 180 XII. CEREZO. OTHER PUPILS OF CARRENO . 206 XIII.

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