Old Spanish Masters Engraved by Timothy Cole

in o00 eg >^ ^V.^/ y LIBRARY OF THE University of California. Class OLD SPANISH MASTERS • • • • • , •,? • • TIIK COXCEPTION OF THE VIRGIN. I!V MURILLO. PRADO Mi;SEUAI, MADKIU. cu Copyright, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, and 1907, by THE CENTURY CO. Published October, k^j THE DE VINNE PRESS CONTENTS rjuw A Note on Spanish Painting 3 CHAPTER I Early Native Art and Foreign Influence the period of ferdinand and isabella (1492-15 16) ... 23 I School of Castile 24 II School of Andalusia 28 III School of Valencia 29 CHAPTER II Beginnings of Italian Influence the PERIOD OF CHARLES I (1516-1556) 33 I School of Castile 37 II School of Andalusia 39 III School of Valencia 41 CHAPTER III The Development of Italian Influence I Period of Philip II (l 556-1 598) 45 II Luis Morales 47 III Other Painters of the School of Castile 53 IV Painters of the School of Andalusia 57 V School of Valencia 59 CHAPTER IV Conclusion of Italian Influence I of III 1 Period Philip (1598-162 ) 63 II El Greco (Domenico Theotocopuli) 66 225832 VI CONTENTS CHAPTER V PACE Culmination of Native Art in the Seventeenth Century period of philip iv (162 1-1665) 77 I Lesser Painters of the School of Castile 79 II Velasquez 81 CHAPTER VI The Seventeenth-Century School of Valencia I Introduction 107 II Ribera (Lo Spagnoletto) log CHAPTER VII The Seventeenth-Century School of Andalusia I Introduction 117 II Francisco de Zurbaran 120 HI Alonso Cano x. 125 CHAPTER VIII The Great Period of the Seventeenth-Century School of Andalusia (continued) 133 CHAPTER IX Decline of Native Painting ii 1 charles ( 665-1 700) 155 CHAPTER X The Bourbon Dynasty FRANCISCO GOYA l6l INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS MuRiLLO, The Conception of the Virgin . Frontispiece Prado Maseom, Madrid PAaMO MOS MuRiLLO, The Prodigal Son Feasting 9 Prado Mnienm, Madrid El Greco (Domenico Theotocopuli), Portrait of Himself . i6 Seville Maieam Velasquez, Portrait of King Philip IV as a Sportsman . i8 Prado MDienm, Madrid Velasquez, Don Baltasar Carlos (Detail) 34 Madrid Moteom Morales, Madonna and Child 47 Botch Collection, Madrid Morales, Madonna of the Little Bird 50 Collection of the Marqaes de Remisa, Madrid El Greco, The Stripping of Christ 66 The Cathedral, Toledo El Greco, Coronation of the Virgin 71 Collection of Sefior Pablo Botch, Madrid El Greco, St. Martin and Mendicant 72 Church of San Jo%i, Toledo El Greco (Domenico Theotocopuli), The Daughter of El Greco 74 CoUectioD of Sir John Stirling- Maxwell, Bart., M. P., London »ii Vin INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS FAaNC PACE Velasquez, Don Olivarez 83 Prado Museum, Madrid Velasquez, "The Spinners" 86 Prado Museum, Madrid Velasquez, The Surrender of Breda (The Lances) .... 91 Prado Museum, Madrid Velasquez, The Menippus 94 Prado Museum, Madrid Velasquez, The Head of a Young Man 97 Collection of Duke of Wellington, Apsley House, London Velasquez, Pope Innocent X 100 Doria Palace, Rome Ribera, The Assumption OF Mary Magdalene 112 Real Academia de Bellas Artes, Madrid ZuRBARAN, St. Elizabeth ... 120 Smith-Barry Collection, London ZuRBARAN, St. Catharine in Prayer 122 Collection of the Infanta Cano, Madonna and Child 126 Cathedral of Seville Cano, St. Agnes 129 Berlin Museum MuRiLLO, The Holy Family of the Little Bird 134 Prado Museum, Madrid MuRiLLo, The Adoration of the Shepherds 137 Seville Museum Murillo, a Spanish Flower-Girl I39 Dulwich College, England Murillo, St. Anna Teaching the Virgin 142 Prado Museum, Madrid INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS IX rAcno rAC« MuRiLLO, St. Joseph and Child i44 Seville Maieain MuRiLLO, St. John THE Baptist 148 Prado Maieam, Madrid Goya, The Washerwomen 165 Madrid Mnscnm Goya, In the Balcony 168 Collection of the Duke of Marchena, Paris Goya, DoRa Isabel Corbo de Porcel 172 National Gallerjr, London OLD SPANISH MASTERS J '•••:/ OLD SPANISH MASTERS A NOTE ON SPANISH PAINTING is not until the end of the fifteenth century that the story of Spanish painting begins to emerge into clearness. Starting at ITthe moment when Italian art was entering upon the supreme achievements of the High Renaissance, it survived the latter's decay, reached its own independent climax in the seventeenth century, and received a supplementary chapter at the end of the eighteenth. As a connected narrative it may be said to have begun with the birth of a United Spain in 1492. Paintings of an earlier time, however, are still extant, but little record of their painters has been pre- served. In the Escorial, for example, and the National Library and Academy of History is a collection of illustrated manuscripts, the miniatures in which are assumed to date from the first century after the Moorish Conquest (1087-92). To the same period probably belong some mural paintings, executed in dry fresco; figures of saints in the little Church of El Christo de la Luz at Toledo, and scenes from the Passion on the vaulted ceiling of the Chapel of Saint Catherine in San Isidoro of Leon. Again, with the introduction of the architecture of Northern France, there came in a style of drawing evolved from it, traces of which are to be found on the monuments of the old cathedral of Salamanca. Of the three mural paintings of the Virgin in Seville, those of Nuestra Sefiora de Roca- 3 .« • • • • • •• • • . •,; .'• OLD SPANISH MASTERS mador at San Lorenzo and of Nuestra Senora del Corral in San Ilde- fonso probably date from the fourteenth century. The third, in Ca- pilla de la Antigua in the cathedral was painted over in the sixteenth century. Moreover in the fourteenth century two Tuscan painters of the school of Giotto, Stamina and Dello, are known to have worked at the court of Juan I and Juan II of Castile; and while no authenticated specimens of their work survive, the vault paintings of San Bias in the cloisters of Toledo are undoubtedly Giottesque. Fur- ther Italian influence is discoverable in the "Lands of the Limousin Dialect" : Valencia, Catalonia, and Majorca. In this district, from the fifteenth century a style prevailed which is akin to that of the early Tuscan and old Cologne schools. Its characteristics are light tempera coloring, animated and graceful movement, flowing drapery, and fine and even beautiful forms. The retablos on which these paintings are found may be recognized by their flat gilded frames, with Gothic tracery and ornamentation. The influence, however, which has left most trace upon the earlier period is that of the Flemish school. Many of these pictures were introduced traders others in Flanders to the by ; painted order of Spanish patrons, while some were the work of Flemish painters visiting or residing in Spain. Jan van Eyck, for example, in 1428, despatched by the Duke of Burgundy on a special mission to Por- tugal, paid a visit to Madrid, and it has been suggested that the "Fountain of Life," in the Prado, may be a work of his hand. The most remarkable example of the Flemish influence is a retablo painted by Luis de Dalman for the chapel in the City Hall of Barce- lona. Produced about ten years after the famous altarpiece of the Van Eycks at Ghent, it exhibits the oil technique, the forms, and even the singing angels of that masterpiece, but translated into Catalonian types. "Those who pass from village to village," writes Carl Justi, "in almost any Spanish province will receive the impression that in the fifteenth century every church possessed one or more painted retablos, so great is the number that have escaped (mostly in the poorer places) the 'churrigueresque' mania for restoration. Most of these A NOTE ON SPANISH PAINTING 5 works date from the second half of the century and show the general characteristics of the early Flemish school. The figures are lean, the outlines sharp, the colors rich and aided by gold. Local types and customs and peculiarities of dress and ornamentation are frequently used. The legends are represented with drastic vigor, and the painter is often quite unique in his way of relating Bible events. In delicacy of workmanship and charm of color they are, however, in- ferior to the Flemish works of the same kind. In Navarre, Aragon, and Roussillon a French element is noticeable; in Catalonia we see French, German and Italian influence at work side by side; in Va- lencia and the Balearic Isles the Italian influence is predominant." In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella entered Granada in triumph. With the loss of their capital the power of the Moors was fatally broken, and the fair province of Andalusia was added to the king- dom already formed by the union of the crowns of Aragon and Cas- tile. All Spain was united under the sway of the Catholic sovereigns. The same year brought to Isabella the first fruits of her support of Columbus. A New World had been discovered, the wealth from which was shortly to make Spain the most powerful country in Europe. Meanwhile forces elsewhere were in fermentation, that, stimulated by the discovery of the New World, were to change the order of the Old. But in the benefit of these Spain was to have no share. Her sovereigns, clinging to the title of Catholic, and arro- gant from excess of wealth, were to become champions of the old order, and in the passing of the latter their own power was to be swept away. Indeed, the rapid growth of Spain in the sixteenth century, and her equally rapid decay in the following one, are among the most significant facts of history, and not without their bearing on Spanish painting. The latter from the beginning took on a character that, with only occasional impairment, it maintained to the end of the eighteenth century.

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