Third Sky-lighter – Spanish art

Spanish collection isn’t very large. It consists of about 150 paintings. In Spain – influence of catholic church and Moorish-style.
Spanish sky-lighter and Spanish cabinet – two halls in H, dedicated to Spanish artist.

Cabinet: “Entombment” by unknown artist (15^th century) – this painting is typical for religious style of art. The donator of this painting is depicted there. Flowers on the tomb. Carnation – spilled blood of Jesus Christ, rose – tortures and blood, lilies – purity of the Virgin.

Renaissance came to Spain later – in the 16^th century. Also in the 16^th century one civil art appeared in Spain – portraits. State portraits of kings, members of the royal families.

Pantoja della Cruse – he was the court artist of two Spanish kings (Филиппы 1 и 2). “The portrait of don Diego de Vilyamayor”. Typical state portrait. It was tradition to paint state portraits in armor, the face wasn’t idealized, rather flat representation. Typical commissioned portrait of noble man of that time.

Lui de Morales (second part of the 16^th century, 1509-1586). “Madonna in grief” – “Mater Dollorossa”. The artist painted Madonna in a style very different from what was traditional in Italian art. He used to work in the court of Philip II, but he was a little bit too gloomy. Madonna is shown as an elderly lady, she is suffering, the artist used different shades of cold green and black colors.

“Madonna and child”. Usually Madonnas were painted as a young and happy mother, this representation is different, M is looking at her child as if she understand a tragedy and terrible fate awaiting for her baby. She has a cross-shaped distaff, spindle in the hands of Jesus (symbolized tortures).

El Greco. A Greek from Crete. He started his career as an artist in his motherland – 25 years old, there was a danger of Turkish invasion in Crete – he moved to Venice. For a short time he studied under Titian. He was influenced by venetian artists (Tintoretto), spent several years in Rome, then moved to Spain and settled down in Toledo. He got many commissions to decorate monasteries and churches their. He was one of the most mystic among the Spanish artist. He was interested in depicting different characters. He painted a series of pictures of 12 apostles with deep inside intercharacters of each of them. In H – one, “The apostles Peter and Paul” – two entirely different characters. Peter – a commoner, a fisherman, the first and the closest of Christ disciples. He was considered by the catholic church as a first Pope. He is depicted with a key in his hands. Paul was a noble educated person, prosecutor of Christians, he is depicted with the Book. Paul disseminated Christianity in Greece (the motherland of El Greco). The artist show different characters with their clothes, gestures etc.

Court artist of te King Philip II, the first among Greece artists to be known in Europe.

Second part of 16^th - 17^th century – the golden age of Spanish art.

Хосе Рибера. 6 paintings, we will show 3. Most of his life he lived in Italy, in Rome, then moved to Naples. He summarized the achievements of Italian artists of different schools. He took subjects from the Bible. “St Onafrions” – belonged to a noble family, but he denied his nobility, went into wilderness, spent 60 years there in a cave as a hermit. He is always represented with a crown and a skull. “St Jerome” – a hermit, who lived in 4-5 centuries. He was a theologian, wrote several books on religion. Once he hared sound of a trumpet, announcing the doomsday. “St Sebastian and St Irene” – when romans left St Sebastian, Irene found him, removed all the arrows and healed his wounds. Influence of Caravaggio.

Frantisco Surbaran (1598-1664). Seville, his father was a peasant. He decorated churches and monasteries. “St Lorence” – he was a priest in a Christian church and he refused to give church property to the roman warriors. He was burnt on an iron grill. There was a monk, who was sitting for him. A lyrical landscape, a rich garment of the Spanish deacon. “Youth of Madonna” – presentation in the Temple. From 1640^th he started to paint Seville’s beautiful women as a saints. He introduced kid’s images.

Diego Velaskes (1599-1660) – “Breakfast”. Boy – himself (1617). Still-life – unfluence of Caravaggio. One of the greatest realist of Spanish painter, he started his artistic career painting strolling musicians, tavern drinkers etc. Such art was discouraged by nobility, by those, who supported religion pictures, called “bodegon”. We’ve got one of the early works by Velaskes – “Breakfast” 1617. It represents three men of different ages, three generations. They are sitting at the table about to eat. The artist’s manner of still-life on the foreground reveals a certain influence of Italian realist Caravaggio. V spent most of his life in Madrid as a court painter as a Phillip IV (1621м вступил на престол, в 16ть лет). The most of his career was devoted to portrait painting, hу produced excellent portraits of Phillip I, the King was admirer of his paintings and even had a key to his studio and to the chair, were he was sit watching artist at work. “Portrait of duke Olivares”. Duke Olivares practically was the ruler of the country, he patronized Velaskes – he is depicted as a catty canny character, type of sociological portrait.

Murillo (13 paintings) – came from Seville, at the age of 20 he moved to Madrid to the house of the Velaskes, V managed to get permission for him to copy paintings in the royal palace. When he returned to Seville, he soon became the most popular artist there, he is considered to be the founder of the academy of fine arts, he was the first president there. In his first period he painted genre scenes, very often children (“A boy with a dog”). Later M started to paint on biblical subjects, portraits and murals. “Rest during the flight into Egypt”. It treated Biblical subject as a genre style, he always used landscape to get more expression. He never painted landscape as a separate genre, but landscapes are always important for creating a certain mood and atmosphere. Painted a series of 6 paintings on Jacob’s life.

“Isaac blessing Jacob”. Old Testament. Isaac had two sons – Isau and Jacob, Ones Jacob, who was the younger brother, forced Isau to sell his birthright for a mess of pottage. Isau was Isaac’s favorite son, while his wife Rebecca preferred Jacob. Isaac was an old man, he felt, he would die soon. He wanted to bless his favorite son Isau, but Rebecca wanted Jacob to have his father’s blessing. When Isau was out hunting, Rebegga covered Jacob’s arms and shoulders with a goat skin as Isau was hairy. Isaac touched the goat skin, took Jacob for Isau and blessed him. When Isau returned home, he was furious and wanted to kill Jacob, so Rebecca advised Jacob to go away to Mesopotamia to her brother. “Jacob’s dream”. When Jacob was on his way to Mesapotamia, he stopped to a night on an open air, he fell asleep on a stone. He had a vision of a stairway, that went up to Heaven and there were angels going up and down, he heard god’s voice, who promised to protect him wherever he went. In the morning Jacob promised to built an alter on this stone and later he settled down here and founded a city here Bethel (Вифель).

“Immaculate conception” (линк – в Павловске в церкви).

Francisco Goya (the end of 18^th, the beginning of 19^th centuries). Golden age of Spanish art was finished by Goya-stile, there was a decline of Spanish art by the end of the 17^th century, only in the second half of the 18^th century a new phenomenal artist appeared – Goya. He was also an engraver. Most of his live he lived in Madrid, court artist of Spanish king, at the end of his life he emigrated to France and died to Bordo. We have only one oil painting – “Portrait of an actress Antonio Sarate”. She died at the age of 36, this portrait is painted just couple of month before her death. We can realize, that she really had a tragic fate, she died from T.B. A picture from Hammer (American magnate).