The Spanish Style and the Art of Devotion
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Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses 2009 Velázquez: The pS anish Style and the Art of Devotion Lawrence L. Saporta Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/dissertations Custom Citation Saporta, Lawrence L. "Velázquez: The pS anish Style and the Art of Devotion." Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 2009. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/dissertations/7 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Velázquez: The Spanish Style and the Art of Devotion. A Dissertation submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. Department of the History of Art Bryn Mawr College Submitted by Lawrence L. Saporta Advisor: Professor Gridley McKim-Smith © Copyright by Lawrence L. Saporta, 2009 All Rights Reserved Dissertation on Diego Velázquez Saporta Contents. Abstract Acknowledgements i Image Resources iii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Jesuit Art Patronage and Devotional Practice 13 Chapter 2. Devotion, Meditation, and the Apparent Awkwardness of Velázquez’ Supper at Emmaus 31 Chapter 3. Velázquez’ Library: “an indefinite and perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries” 86 Chapter 4 Technique, Style, and the Nature of the Image 127 Chapter 5 The Formalist Chapter 172 Chapter 6 Velázquez, Titian, and the pittoresco of Boschini 226 Synthesis 258 Conclusion 267 Works Cited 271 Velázquez: The Spanish Style and the Art of Devotion. Lawrence L. Saporta, Ph.D. Bryn Mawr College, 2009 Supervisor: Gridley McKim-Smith This dissertation offers an account of counter-reformation mystical texts and praxis with art historical applicability to Spanish painting of the Seventeenth Century— particularly the work of Diego Velázquez. The consequences of considering devotional practice and mystical experience in the analysis of Spanish painting in the siglo de oro yields new, more complete, and more intellectually satisfying readings of particular works. Without supplanting the long-established tradition of applying Flemish and Italian models to Diego Velázquez’ work, emphasis is placed on what is authentically Spanish in his accomplishments. Acknowledgements. This dissertation is dedicated to three people without whom it would never have come to fruition: My wife, Lisa, who knows better than anyone that no one writes a text like this alone My Mother, Gertrude Vandelagemaat de Saporta, whose support and love mean more than I can express And my father, the late José Alberto Saporta, Sr.—Viejo, you are always with me This project has taken longer than I could have predicted and called on resources that I did not know I possessed before I began it. Along the way I have experienced the generosity of wonderful and inspiringly learned people who were unstinting in giving the gifts of their time and advice. Where I have drawn on their knowledge, they deserve the credit. Any errors or omissions are my own. That my advisor, Professor Gridley McKim-Smith, was a remarkably gifted scholar, I knew before I came to Bryn Mawr College years ago. That she would be such a wonderful teacher, by turns patient, nurturing, and stern—and always in just the right proportion to bring out what this project required—is something I have learned since. The faculty and staff of Bryn Mawr College have brought me through this long process by means of their tremendous learning and kindness. I would like to mention Professors David Cast, Lisa Saltzman, and Steven Z. Levine, all of whom have been kind enough to serve on my committee and to provide invaluable advice throughout the writing of this text. I would also like to thank Professors Dale Kinney and Barbara Miller Lane. Both of them, I hope, know that my gratitude will always be commensurate with the kindness they have shown me and the inspiration they have provided me to be the very best scholar, teacher, and person I can be. Professors P. Koelle and M. C. Quintero of Bryn Mawr’s Spanish department provided guidance that was massively helpful. Terri Lobo and my friend Lea Miller in the graduate office have taken up the cause of my dissertation as if it were their own. I cannot thank them enough. Similarly, Pam Cohen of the Art and Archaeology Office deserves special thanks. I would be remiss if I did not make special mention of the thanks due to Eileen Markson, now retired, who made the Rhys Carpenter Library such a wonderful place to work. Father Joseph Chorpenning, O.S. F.S., also kind enough to serve on my committee, and whose work on Saint Teresa of Avila served as one of the earliest inspirations for the direction I took in this project, wonderfully embodies the Salesian tradition of the Church. Like Saint Francis de Sales, he is a gentleman (in the truest sense of the term) and spiritual shepherd whose advice and generosity I will not soon forget. i What I am sure would have been a fruitful dialogue with Father Andrew Greeley, S.J., was interrupted by the terrible accident he had in Chicago in November. The generosity with which he expressed interest in my use of his book, The Catholic Imagination, was itself an inspiration to me. I have great hopes that his recovery will proceed apace, and I will one day have the exchange of ideas that I was looking forward to sharing with him. Until then, I am glad to hear that Father Greeley is back home and I offer my sincerest wishes for his complete recovery. Professor Alice Donohue of the Archaeology Department not only introduced my to the issues of Style and Connoisseurship that have formed the heart of my research since I sat in her Seminar in my first year of graduate school; her advice also improved drafts of this document in ways that have changed the way I work and write. To be able to call her my friend is a source of great pride for me. Elaine Beretz of the Center for Visual Culture at Bryn Mawr College provided advice and insights that enriched this text beyond measure. Elaine’s enthusiasm and generosity reminded me of why I chose Art History as my calling, whenever the pressures of writing this dissertation might have inclined me to forget it. Librarians Jane McGarry and Jeremy Blatchley, know, I hope, how they have helped to make it possible for me to complete this dissertation. My dear friends, the librarians Arleen Zimerle and (at Haverford College) James Gulick, will, I also hope, take some satisfaction in knowing what I know all too well, that their help and support made this dissertation possible, and allowed me and my wife Lisa to bring it to a conclusion with our sanity intact. My dear friend Randal Gustitis, Systems Administrator at the Guild Computer Center at Bryn Mawr deserves special praise for patience and support. I have learned a tremendous amount from him—first and foremost about loyalty and friendship. My friends who watched me choose the academy as the place where I have made my intellectual home, because they knew it was what I wanted, never failed to help me, to sympathize with me, and sometimes, just to endure me. They deserve mention in these acknowledgments at least as much as those I have already listed. Among these, pride of place must go to Christopher Marks and Ronald Violi, two old and dear friends who I admire more than I can say. My big sister, Virginia Saporta, and my big brother, Jose Alberto Saporta, Jr., helped bring me back to my better self when I had almost lost hope of finishing this undertaking. My late brother Victor Javier Saporta,whose life ended too soon and had too little of the sweetness he deserved to draw from it, is the last person I would like to remember here. I like to think he would have been proud of me. To those I have not mentioned, and I fear that there are many of them, I offer a sincere apology. You know who you are, and as I hope I am at the beginning of a long career as a scholar; give me time in the acknowledgments to future work to make amends. ii iii Image Resources. Unless otherwise indicated, images reproduced in this dissertation are from ArtStor and the Wikimedia Commons. Figure 1. Diego Velázquez, The Supper at Emmaus, c.1620, oil/canvas, 123.2 x 132.7 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 31 Figure 2. Paris Hilton (in brown wig) and Travis Barker photographed at Absinthe Bar in the Red Light District, Amsterdam. Posted September 28, 2006, at http://thesuperficial.com/2006/. 38 Figure 3. Titian, Supper at Emmaus, c. 1535, oil/canvas, Louvre, Paris. 40 Figure 4. Jacopo Bassano, Supper at Emmaus, c.1538, oil/canvas, 235 x 250 cm., Sacristy, Parish Church, Cittadella. 40 Figure 5. Pedro Orrente, Supper at Emmaus, 1620’s, oil/canvas, 81 x 101 cm c.1629, MFA, Budapest. 42 Figure 6. Rembrandt, Supper at Emmaus, oil on paper on wood, 37.4 x 42.3 cm, 1628, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris. 43 Figure 7. Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus, c. 1600-1601, oil/canvas 54 3/4 x 76 3/4 in. National Gallery, London. 44 Figure 8. Van Meegeren, Supper at Emmaus, oil/canvas, 1936. Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. 45 Figure 9. Albrecht Dürer, Christ appears to the disciples at Emmaus, woodcut, c. 1510 for the Small Passion. 46 Figure10. Zurbarán, Supper at Emmaus, 1639, Academia de San Carlos, Mexico City. 49 Figure 10 A. Supper at Emmaus, oil on copper, private collection. 50 Image from http://memorialunitedmethodist.org/the_way.htm Figure 11.