baroque - Spain Flashcards
Spanish Baroque background
- Golden Age of Spanish Art
- Spain supported Roman Catholic Church in Counter-Reformation - spent lavishly on art
- scenes of Death and Martyrdom were popular
— used drama and emotionalism to achieve religious purpose
— Caravaggesque tenebrism and realism - genre, still life -> popular
—common people treated with human dignity
5.royal family was keen patron of art
major centers- Seville, Madrid
Jose de Ribera
- trained in Valencia, settled in naples
- influenced by Caravaggio
- influenced by the Carraccis of the Bolognese school
Jose de Ribera - Martyrdom of St.Philip
- Baroque realism - everydayness of religious scenes
- unidealized figure of the saint - similar to his torturers
- caravaggesque elements and chiaroscuro
Caravaggio - Repose in the Flight into Egypt (baroque italy)
1.Naturalism: immersed in nature, sacred figures are humans with no difference from ordinary people
Jose de Ribera - The Clubfoot
- beggar is treated with human dignity, nobility
- low observation angle - heroic presence
- cheerful and high-spirited
- clear blue sky - optimism
- “give me alms for the love of god” on his paper
Francisco de Zurbaran
- Spanish Baroque artists - The Seville School
- monastic painter, renowned for large-scale retablo altarpieces for churches
- style - quiet and contemplative, for devotional purposes
Francisco de Zurbaran - Saint Serapian
- light reveals the tragic death of the saint
- coarse and common features - common people
- direct, frontal and monumental figure evokes more empathy from the viewers
Diego Velasquez
1.Spanish Baroque artists - The Seville School
2. greatest painter of Spanish Baroque
3. early career - mainly religious and genre subjects
4. court painter of Emperor Philip IV (more than 30 yeas service and friendship)
5 mainly royal portraiture and historical events
6. visited Italy as a painter and a delegate for the Emperor
Diego Velasquez - Water Seller of Seville
- early work in Seville
- everyday objects from tavern
- rendered with solemnity like a religious spirituality
- still life - refined like antique objects
Diego Velasquez - Surrender of Breda
- large scale history painting - holland tried to gain independence from Spain but failed
- fictional representation - calm and mutual respect between Spain and Holland
Diego Velasquez - Philip IV on Horseback
- Equestrian portraiture in the tradition of ancient Roman art
- learnt from Titan - became successful painter of royalties
Diego Velasquez - King Philip of Spain
- painted during the King’s compaign to reconquer Aragonese territory
- he is a keen collector and patron of art
Diego Velasquez - Las Meninas (maids of honour)
- Margarita was accompanied by two maids-in-waiting, dwarfs and a dog
- visit of Princess Margarita to her parents when theyre being protrayed(?)
- painter working in his studio in front of a large canvas
- use of linear perspective to build up depth of space
- careful geometrical construction
- self protrait of himself (dressed like a knight - noble status given by Emperor) (red cross on his costumes), and reflection of royal couple
short conclusion of Maids of Hornour
- Category
— genre painting - daily court life
— informal and intimate royal portraiture
2.visual and narrative complexity
— who was being portrayed? Margarita or royal couple
— Margarita - royal couple visited the painter’s studio
— royal couple being painted - reflection in the mirror - reversal of space and situation
—reflection on seeing and being seen
— mirror reflection - recalls Jan Van Eyck’s Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride
Diego Velasquez - Rokeby Venus with Mirror
- only female nude of the painter
- challenges voyeuristic pleasure of the viewer in the female nudes - who is watching whom
