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THE SACRED MADE REAL SPANISH PAINTING & SCULPTURE 1600–1700 21 OCTOBER 2009–24 JANUARY 2010 Supported by the American Friends of the National Gallery as a result of a generous grant from Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Audio guide 5 Curator Xavier Bray gives a personal tour of the 3 exhibition accompanied by Brazilian painter and 4 sculptor Ana Maria Pacheco and Jesuit priest James Hanvey. The audio guide and exhibition film feature 2 6 specially commissioned music by leading British pianist Stephen Hough, who has created a modern interpretation of Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Requiem (1605). Individual movements of this beautiful string exhibition sextet can be listened to in rooms of the exhibition. 1 cinema Available in English, French and Spanish; £3.50, £3 concessions The Making of a Spanish Polychrome Sculpture Exhibition film To discover the incredible skill involved in making the The extraordinarily lifelike sculptures of the suffering painted sculptures in this exhibition, visit a free display Christ, the saints and the mourning Virgin in this upstairs in Room 1. Turn to the back of this guide exhibition remain compelling objects of veneration for more details and notes on technique. in churches around Spain. A short film showing in the exhibition cinema explores the contemporary Spanish Masterpieces trail relevance of these works, including dramatic footage of their procession by candlelight through To see further great works from the Spanish Golden the streets of Seville and Valladolid during Holy Age, including masterpieces by Velázquez and Week. You are welcome to view the 20­minute Zurbarán, ask at Information Desks for our special film at any time during your exhibition visit. trail of the Gallery’s Spanish collection. Subtitled; free Available in English and Spanish; free INTRODUCTION Montañés and Pedro de Mena, for example – are virtually unknown outside Spain. The sculpture they In 17th­century Spain, a new kind of realism in produced, which was carved in wood and then art emerged. In order to revitalise the Catholic polychromed (painted in many colours), required Church, painters and sculptors worked together considerable skill and the result was some of the in an attempt to make the sacred as realistic and greatest masterpieces of Spanish art. accessible as possible. This realism was quite unlike any other developing in Europe. It was During this period, sculptors worked very closely stark, austere and often gory, with the intention alongside painters, who as part of their training of shocking the senses and stirring the soul. were taught the art of polychroming sculpture. This exhibition will argue that this led to a new style Although the painters who worked during this of painting, one that was highly naturalistic and period, such as Velázquez and Zurbarán, are emphasised the three­dimensional. For the first time, celebrated today, the sculptors – Juan Martínez some of the finest examples of painting and sculpture from the Spanish Golden Age are here juxtaposed, demonstrating how these two media had a profound Bay of Biscay FRANCE influence on each other. ANDORRA Santiago de Bilbao Compostela Barcelona Valladolid The exhibition is organised by the National Gallery, London, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. MAJORCA Ávila Madrid Supported by the American Friends of the National Gallery as a IBIZA Toledo result of a generous grant from Howard and Roberta Ahmanson. PORTUGAL SPAIN We would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Córdoba Mediterranean Sea Spanish Tourist Board, the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de Seville Granada España and the Spanish Church for their generous support. Málaga This exhibition has been made possible with the assistance of Gulf of Cádiz GIBRALTAR the Government Indemnity Scheme, which is provided by DCMS and administered by MLA. Map of modern Spain ROOM 1 1 THE ART OF PAINTING Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) SCULPTURE: THE QUEST FOR REALITY Portrait of Juan Martínez The production of religious sculpture in 17th century Montañés, 1635–6 Spain was strictly governed by the guild system the Guild of Carpenters for the sculptors and the Guild Montañés was one of the most important sculptors of Painters for the polychromers or painters. The skills working in 17th­century Seville. Popularly known as needed to paint sculpture were taught in painters’ the ‘god of wood’, he often sent his sculptures to studios throughout Spain, the most famous being Pacheco’s studio to be painted. In 1635, Montañés Francisco Pacheco’s in Seville, where both Velázquez was called to Madrid to make a likeness of Philip IV in and Alonso Cano studied. In his influential treatise clay. Velázquez portrays him as a gentleman­sculptor, Arte de la Pintura (1649) Pacheco advised that a dressed in his best attire. He is shown in the act of wooden sculpture ‘requires the painter’s hand to come creation – an effect Velázquez marvellously captures to life’. Zurbarán is documented as having painted by leaving the area of the king’s head unpainted. a carving of the Crucifixion early on in his career. As an art form, the practice of painting sculpture remains little studied today. There is no doubt, however, that it was highly respected in its time and was considered a lucrative business for painters. One of the results of the direct contact painters had with religious sculpture was that they often introduced three dimensional illusionism into their compositions. Oil on canvas Cat. 1/X6329. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid 2 3 Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644) Juan de Mesa (1583–1627) and unknown painter Christ on the Cross, 1614 Christ on the Cross, Pacheco was celebrated for his skills as a painter about 1618–20 of sculpture and often collaborated with Montañés (see portrait, 1, and 6), including work on life­sized This carving is a reduced version, with slight Crucifixions. This is reflected in the strong sculptural differences, of one of Mesa’s most celebrated life­sized quality of the painted Crucifixion displayed here. As Crucifixions, popularly known as the ‘Christ of Love’. censor of religious art on behalf of the Inquisition, This large Crucifixion was commissioned in 1618 by Pacheco believed that artists should always represent a confraternity, or religious brotherhood, in Seville and the four nails by which Christ was attached to the is still processed through the streets on the evening cross, and not three as was sometimes the case. of Palm Sunday. Mesa’s precise carving style was celebrated in its day for its exaggerated realism and harsh sense of pathos. We see this here in Christ’s emaciated form that reveals the outlines of his ribcage and muscles. Oil on cedar Painted wood Cat. 2/X6151. Instituto Gómez­Moreno, Cat. 3/X6330. Archicofradía del Santísimo Cristo del Amor, Fundación Rodríguez­Acosta, Granada Collegiate Church of El Salvador, Seville 4 5 Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664) Alonso Cano (1601–1667) Saint Luke contemplating The Vision of Saint Bernard the Crucifixion, 1630s of Clairvaux, also known as ‘The Miracle of the Lactation’, A painter, with palette and brush at the ready, stands before Christ on the cross. He is identifiable about 1657–60 as Luke the Evangelist, the patron saint of painters. Zurbarán’s theatrical composition – like actors on In 1119, when kneeling in prayer before a sculpture a stage, only the figures are lit – invites viewers of the Virgin breastfeeding the Christ Child, Saint to question whether they are looking at a painting Bernard pronounced the words, ‘show yourself to of the Crucifixion or a painting of a polychrome be a mother’, upon which the sculpture came alive sculpture. Zurbarán is known to have painted a and squirted milk into his mouth. The subject is sculpture of the Crucifixion in 1624 and no doubt traditionally depicted as a vision, with the Virgin knew Mesa’s carvings in Seville [3, 8]. mounted on clouds, but it was undoubtedly Cano’s training as both sculptor and painter that led him to represent the Virgin as a sculpture seemingly coming to life. Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Cat. 4/X6135. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Cat. 10/X6133. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid The Virgin of the 6 Immaculate Conception Attributed to Juan Martínez The Immaculate Conception – the belief that the Montañés (1568–1649) and Virgin Mary was born free of original sin – was a unknown painter theologically complex doctrine, hotly debated in religious circles since the Middle Ages. The subject was particularly popular in Seville since the city had The Virgin of the Immaculate a special devotion to the Virgin. Conception, about 1628 Sculptors and painters such as Montañés and Montañés and Pacheco produced several versions Pacheco worked together in establishing an of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception together orthodox image of the Virgin. Artists took as their throughout their careers. This version is likely to chief source the description found in the Book of have come from Montañés’s workshop and follows Revelation of ‘a woman clothed with the sun, and closely Pacheco’s teachings on how to paint the flesh the moon under her feet, and upon her head a tones and apply the elaborate estofado technique crown of twelve stars… ’ (Revelations 12: 1–2). And of decoration to the drapery. The naturalism with Pacheco, in his treatise, further stipulated that the which the Virgin is shown – her youthful face and Virgin should be represented as a beautiful young humble expression, her long brown hair, the folds girl of 12 or 13 with flowing golden hair, serious of her mantle falling heavily around her body – was eyes and a perfect nose and mouth. to have a profound influence on later generations of artists, notably the young Velázquez [7]. Painted wood Cat.

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