Part 5

The chief recreations of Madrid society are the bull-fight, the theatre, dancing, driving, and card-playing. The national pastime of bull-fighting demands a chapter to itself, and the theatre will be treated in another section of this volume. We may here devote a page or two to Spanish dancing, one of the favourite and most charming diversions of the country. Every province of Spain has its traditional dances, from the Jota Aragonesa of Aragon to the Seguidillas of Seville. Andalusia is the region of Moorish dances, survivals of the old days, descriptive of the passion of love. The Cachucha is said to be pre-Roman in its origin, and there is no doubt that most of the national dances are very ancient. Some of these dances are grave and slow, others gay and nimble, and all are marked by grace and charm. The Zarabanda, a Morisco dance of a voluptuous character, was at one period proscribed by the government, and was said to be the invention of the devil. The Fandango also came under reproof in former times.

Typical dances may be witnessed in two or three of the variety theatres of Madrid, but the best dancers are to be seen in the south, in Malaga and sunny Seville. Many ladies in society excel in the art of dancing, and at private gatherings they display their skill and lissom grace in beautiful movements to the accompaniment of the piano or guitar, and castanets. The hands and the trunk of the body play a no less important part than the feet in Spanish dancing.

Besides the characteristic national dances, there are the quadrilles and set dances of other countries which have been introduced into Spain. The minuet was at one time a part of the education of all upper class families in the Peninsula.

Dancing is often part of the entertainment provided at the _tertulias_, or evening gatherings, in fashionable society. It is the ambition of every handsome lady in Madrid to be famed for her hospitality and to shine as the centre of a _tertulia_, an institution suggestive in some measure of the _salons_ of France.

Shooting, horse-racing, pigeon-shooting matches, and the ball game known as _pelota_ are the principal out-door recreations of the leisured class in Madrid. The Spanish _cazador_, or sportsman, is usually a good shot, and capable of enduring severe fatigue in the pursuit of his game. Wild boars and deer are fairly abundant in the preserves of the old families, and these beasts of the chase are also found upon most of the wild mountain ranges. Hares and red-legged partridges afford sport within a league of Madrid, and the Montes de Toledo have always been famous for big game.

The Juego de Pelota is a popular game played in three or four courts in the city by professionals. Pelota is an old amusement of the countryside which has become a fashionable sport. The Basques and the Navarrese excel in this game. A protector for the hand is worn by the players, and the balls are made of india-rubber encased in leather. The ball is struck against a high wall, and hit so that upon the rebound it will fall into a court marked out upon the ground. In some respects _pelota_ resembles fives, and has also a similarity to lawn-tennis. It is a spirited and highly interesting game, and the finest players may be seen in the public _frontones_ of Madrid.

The Madrileños delight in frequenting clubs and cafés, but there is very little drunkenness in the city, although these places of resort are always crowded. Madrid is one of the soberest cities in Europe, and throughout Spain the word drunkard (_borracho_) is seldom used in polite society. Black coffee is the favourite beverage, to which a few drops of spirit are sometimes added. The wines of ordinary use are light clarets or white wines. A light lager is a favourite drink in the hot weather.

The popular cafés of the Puerta del Sol are used as clubs, where all classes resort to chat and smoke and to read the papers, or to play at billiards. These places are thronged in the evening, and often until the small hours of the morning one hears the buzz of conversation and the click of billiard balls.

As the centre of the Court and the residence of the reigning family, Madrid is, of course, the resort and the home of many members of the aristocracy. The Duke of Lerma, the Duke of Villahermosa, and the Osuna family had palaces in the city; and the first Duke of Alba lived in Calle de la Princesa, since renamed the Calle de Alba. The beautiful Liria Palace, designed by Ventura Rodriguez, is now the home of the young Duke of Alba and his brother and sister, Count de Montijo and Doña Sol.

The Liria Palace contains some fine tapestries, curious antique furniture, and valuable pieces of armour. There is also a collection of paintings in the possession of the family, containing many portraits of illustrious ancestors. The garden of the palace is extremely beautiful and sequestered.

The old Valencian family of Cervello own the palace in the Calle de Santa Isabel. The building stands in a garden, and it was restored some years ago. Very fashionable receptions, costume balls, and theatrical entertainments are held in this sumptuous palace.

The Duchess of Denia built the mansion in the Plaza de Colón. There is a magnificent Renaissance staircase at this palace, a chapel in the later Moorish style of architecture, erected by Arturo Mélida, and a fine reception hall.

The Portugalete Palace in the Calle de Alcalá belongs to the Castaño family. It is one of the most artistic houses in Madrid. In the Plaza de Castelar is the home of the Marquis of Linares, beautifully decorated within, and containing handsome carved furniture.

The Palace of the Larios is another imposing building in La Castellana. It contains a _patio_ in imitation of the Court of the Lions at the Alhambra Palace.

Calderon built the mansion in the Recoletos, which is now in the possession of the Marchioness de Manzanedo, who resides there. The Infanta Isabel has a splendid house in the barrio de Argüelles. The Marquis de Cerralbo, the Duke of Valencia, and the Count of Peñalver reside in elegant houses in the city. The late Conde de Valencia de Don Juan, who was Director of the Royal Armoury, was a noted collector of pictures, objects of art, and antiquities.

Other palaces of interest are those of the Duke of Nájera in the Calle de Alcalá, the old residence of the Countess de Pinohermoso, in the Calle de Don Pedro, the house of the Count de Agreda, and that of the Marchioness de Casa López, near the Puerta de Alcalá. The residence of the Marchioness de Squilache is the rendezvous of the eminent in politics, literature, and art. Artistic gatherings are held in the salon of the Marchioness de Bolaños and that of Don Enrique Peñalver.

IV

ART IN MADRID

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, during a pacific period following on the long conflict with the Moors, there arose a number of painters in Castile. Juan II., King of Castile, was a lover of the arts and of literature. We read that this king employed a painter of the Flemish School, named Maestro Rogel, who was reputed to be a pupil of Van Eyck. It was about this time that Flemish art began to influence the work of the Spanish artists, while the Italian style was especially followed by the painters of the Castilian School.

Antonio Rincon has been called the founder of the Castilian School of painting, and it is recorded that this artist studied in Italy before his appointment as court painter to Ferdinand and Isabella. Rincon’s portraits of his royal patrons were at one time in the Church of San Juan de los Reys at Toledo, but they were destroyed during the wars with France. In the Royal Gallery of Madrid, putative copies of these portraits are preserved, and they show great force and individuality. But many of the works of Antonio Rincon, in the mannered Italian style, are of mediocre merit.

A more powerful painter of Castile was Juan de Borgoña, who laboured with Rincon upon the jasper steps of the wonderful Gothic retablo in Toledo Cathedral. Some of Borgoña’s frescoes have perished; but in the Prado Gallery at Madrid there are several pictures, attributed to an unknown artist, which are probably the work of this painter.

Pedro Berruguete, father of Alonso Berruguete, the painter and sculptor, has been likened by Lord Leighton to Carpaccio. Very little is known of Pedro Berruguete. In the Royal Gallery of Madrid there are some paintings ascribed to this artist, representing scenes from the lives of Thomas Aquinas, San Pedro, and Domingo de Guzman, glowing with colour and painted with a strong hand.

Felix Castello, born in Madrid in 1602, was a painter of moderate ability. Two of his paintings may be seen in the Prado Gallery, one depicting “A Battle between Spanish and Dutch,” and the other “The Landing of General Fadrique de Toledo.”

The Titanic genius of Velazquez shone not only above all his predecessors of the School of Castile, but above the host of Spanish painters. Velazquez was born in 1599, and lived until 1660. He was a native of Seville, where he studied art under Francisco de Herrera and Pacheco. In 1623 his fame had reached the ears of the king, through the Duke of Olivares, and Velazquez was appointed royal painter in Madrid, and lodged in the princes’ quarters of the palace. Here he produced his greatest works, often watched while he painted by the king, who enjoyed the society of artists.

Besides his apartments in the royal palace, Velazquez had later a private house in the Calle de Concepcion Geronima. Velazquez was now at the zenith of his fame, the cynosure of an art circle, the acknowledged master of an enthusiastic following, the favourite of royalty, and the friend of _grandes_. “A taste for the arts, an intelligent appreciation and discussion of art topics, had at that time already become a matter of tradition in Madrid,” writes Professor Carl Justi in his “Diego Velazquez and His Times.”

The first painting of Velazquez seen by the people of Madrid was exhibited upon the door of the Church of San Felipe in the Calle Mayor. His progress from that hour was victorious, though he had to encounter the envy of the Italian painters who were then employed by Philip. Carducci speaks of “the detestable naturalism” of the new court painter.

In 1628, Velazquez met Rubens at Madrid. Next year he went to Italy, and upon his return to Spain, he worked with extraordinary industry upon royal portraits and historical scenes for the regal palaces.

In 1636, Diego Velazquez was appointed Wardrobe-Assistant to the King and Minister of Fine Arts. But the greatest honour was accorded to the painter in 1659, when he received the Cross of Santiago, the highest order of Spain. Two years after, Velazquez died at Madrid of a fever, which he had contracted through over-exertion in the conduct of an expedition in the north of Spain, when Philip met the King of France.

The masterpieces of Velazquez are stored in a fine _sala_ at the Museo del Prado[1] in Madrid. “Las Meninas,” a work proclaimed by many artists and art critics as the finest painting in the world, is in this priceless collection. Artists from every country have regarded the Prado Gallery as a Mecca. Wilkie came to Madrid, and spent long hours gazing at the paintings of Velazquez. John Philips modelled his style on Velazquez, and Manet, Furse, Sargent, Whistler, and Sir Frederick Leighton are among the pilgrims to the Prado. It was probably the painting of “Las Meninas” which gained for Velazquez the Order of Santiago.

[1] For a full description of the pictures in this museum, see “The Prado,” an illustrated volume in this series.

“The Forge of Vulcan,” a mythological subject treated in a realistic manner, is in the Prado among the splendid collection of pictures of Velazquez, besides the more generally esteemed “Los Barrachos” and “Las Lanzas.”

Velazquez had a host of successors among the painters of Spain, but he founded no school, for he stood alone and unapproachable. The works of his survivors may be studied in the Prado Gallery. One of these successors was Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo, Velazquez’ son-in-law, and another, Juan de Pareja, his slave. Pareja’s talent was discovered by the king, who said: “A painter like you should not remain a slave,” and freedom was given to the Morisco serf of Velazquez.

In the work of Pareja the influence of his great master is naturally manifest, and this is seen in the picture in the Prado collection, “The Calling of the Apostle Matthew.” It is certain that many paintings ascribed to Velazquez are the work of his son-in-law Juan del Mazo, who was a zealous copyist of the master’s art.

Juan Rizi, sometimes called the Castilian Zurbaran, is represented by one picture in the Madrid Gallery--“St Francis receiving the Stigmata or Five Wounds of Christ,” a work of very considerable merit.

Antonio Pereda worked in Madrid under Pedro de las Cuevas, and became painter to the Court. Two of Pereda’s pictures are in the Royal Gallery, displaying fine colour, but yet possessing no power to convince.

The next artist in chronological order who was associated with Madrid was Carreño de Miranda, another pupil of Pedro de las Cuevas, and the Pintor de Cámara to the Court. His talent is most marked in his portraits of Charles II.; and his imitations of Velazquez though feeble in comparison with the powerful work of his exemplar, are of singular interest and merit.

Claudio Coello was a native of Madrid, and the son of a Portuguese sculptor. Many of his paintings are to be seen at the Escorial, where he worked for seven years upon the famous “Santa Forma” in the Sacristia. It is said that Coello died broken-hearted from the chagrin of being superseded by Luca Giordano, the facile Italian painter.

With the advent of Giordano the essential realism of Spanish painting began to decline. “In Madrid, imitation was the death-blow of reality,” writes C. Gasquoine Hartley in her “Record of Spanish Painting.” Many minor artists arose in Castile in this period of decline. They were followers of Giordano and other Italians, and for the greater part devoid of originality. The influence of Mengs was another menace to the development of a purely national school of painting in Spain, and the unimportant work of Bayeu, Maella, Barnuevo and others shows the waning of Castilian art.

A revival came with Francisco Goya, an ardent genius, who sprang from the people, and came to Madrid as a student. Goya studied the masterpieces in the Madrid galleries, visited Italy, and returned to the Castilian capital at about the age of thirty. Up to this time, Goya had painted but few pictures. Now he began his revolutionary career as an artist, and won fame, which has spread throughout the cultured world since his death. He soon became popular in Madrid. His daring and his pungent satire rather attracted than repelled the King, the clergy, and the society of the city. He painted the life of his day with a vivid, unsparing brush; he took liberties with even sacred institutions, and derided ancient and effete traditions.

Under Charles IV., Goya was appointed Royal Painter. He was a favourite of Queen Maria Luisa, the Duchess of Alba, and the Countess Benavente, and he enjoyed the confidence of the King. And yet Goya was a rebel in his opinions and in his art, and his royal portraits are characterised by a brutal frankness. In his tapestry designs, his scenes of Madrid life, his bull-fighting incidents, his portraits, and his “caprichos,” he displays the versatility of a remarkable mind. Goya worked rapidly, and his output was enormous.

The celebrated “Dos de Mayo,” a terribly realistic war picture, together with “An Episode in the French Invasion,” may be studied in the Royal Gallery at Madrid. In the Prado collection there are several of Goya’s royal portraits--“The Family of Charles IV.,” with its unflattering realism; “Charles IV. on foot”; “Queen Maria Luisa”; “The Infante Don Carlos, son of Carlos IV.”; and others of great interest. More of Goya’s works may be inspected in the Academy of Fine Arts at Madrid. These include a portrait of the painter by himself, a bull-fighting scene, an episode of the Inquisition, a procession, and other characteristic pictures.

When Joseph Bonaparte ruled in Madrid, Goya took the oath of fealty, and painted the usurper’s portrait. In 1814, the painter became a courtier of Ferdinand, and was pardoned for his disloyalty on the grounds that he was “a great artist.” A few years later, his wife Josefa died, and Goya, who was deaf, and bereft of many of his friends, seems to have wearied of the life of the Court at Madrid, and yearned for change and travel.

In 1822, he obtained the royal permission to visit France. He went first to Paris, where he was hailed by the young French painters, afterwards residing at Bordeaux, where he stayed for nearly five years before returning to Spain. In 1828, his restless spirit passed away.

Perhaps the finest of Goya’s portraits are those of the king and queen on horseback. It was Gautier who remarked of Goya that at times “he paints with the delicacy of that delicious Gainsborough, at other times he has the solid touch of Rembrandt.” Goya was one of the first of the moderns, an artist who broke from cramping tradition, and forced his way to eminence and even to popularity in a few years.

There is a long gap in the art history of Spain between Francisco Goya and Fortuny. Mariano Fortuny was not a native of Madrid, but he came to the city in 1866. There are two of his pictures in the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid. One is a sketch for the “Battle of Tetuan,” and the other “The Queen Regent with Doña Isabel exhorting the Spanish Troops to withstand the Carlists.” Between Goya and Fortuny there are no links in the historic succession of artists, unless we regard Rosales and Galofré as national in the tendency of their art. There are two of Rosales’ pictures in the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid.

The National Museum of Painting and Sculpture, otherwise the Museo del Prado, was founded in the reign of Charles III., and planned by Villanueva. The work was interrupted by the war with France, and finished in the time of Ferdinand VII. Architecturally considered, the exterior of the museum is handsome and massive. Its chief defect is the poor quality of the light within. Its glory is the vast treasure of masterpieces of all the schools of Europe.

The works of the early Spanish painters may be here studied in the Long Gallery, beginning with Gallegos, whose pictures are catalogued as those of an unknown master. Pedro Berruguete shows the first example of the Italian influence. In the paintings of Luis de Morales we trace the natural Spanish style, and discern that note of dramatic gloom and religious sentiment that characterises the true painters of Spain. Juan de Juanes, much esteemed in his age, reveals an Italianised art. In the works of Navarrete there is visible the influence of Titian, who worked with him at the Escorial Palace.

El Greco, who was taught in Venice, stands alone. The picture of “Jesus dead in the Arms of God the Father” is a representative work of this weird genius, whose art was Spanish, in spite of his Cretan origin. El Greco’s art is also conveyed in all its power in “The Baptism of Christ.” Many of this painter’s canvases are in Toledo, two are at the Escorial, one in the Cathedral of Seville, and his portrait, painted by himself, is in the Museo Provincial at Seville. The Prado Gallery contains nine of El Greco’s works.

Ribera is an artist whose work is singularly modern as regards technique, though he lived from 1588 to 1656.

The collection at the Prado contains a large number of the paintings of Ribera, the predecessor of Velazquez and Murillo, whose virile influence is manifest in the productions of many of the Spanish schools of the later period.

Murillo is represented by about two score of paintings in the Prado, and by several pictures in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The Prado contains the “Sacred Family,” “The Penitent Magdalen,” “The Adoration of the Shepherds,” and several other well-known paintings.

We have already referred to the pictures by Velazquez and Goya to be seen in the Prado collection. It now remains to briefly enumerate some of the great works of the Italian and Northern Schools. Among the Italian Primitives, we have examples of the art of Fra Angelico and Mantegna, and of the later school, there are pictures of Raphael, Andrea del Sarto and Correggio. The Venetians are exampled by Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Tiepolo. There are nearly fifty pictures from the brush of Titian. Among his earlier achievements are “Fertility” and the “Garden of Loves.” Here also are the portraits of “Charles V.” and “Philip II.,” the painting of “St Margaret,” and the famous “Entombment.”

Among the other Italian and Venetian pictures are Raphael’s “Holy Family and the Lamb,” Andrea del Sarto’s “Madonna and St John,” and two early works of Correggio.

In the collection of paintings of the Northern School there are examples of Van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, and though some of these are copies, there is an authentic picture by Van der Weyden. The triptych of Memlinc is in this portion of the gallery, and Holbein’s “Portrait of a Man.” Rubens, “the third glory of the Prado,” is well represented by about sixty paintings. There are also paintings by Jordaens and Van Dyck.

The work of Antonio Moro should be carefully noted, as the art of this painter, who was the master of Coello, was the foundation of the Spanish School of Portraiture.

In the Museo de Arte Moderna there are many pictures by contemporary artists, and several groups of statuary. Among the paintings are works of Madrazo, Lopez, Pradilla, Casado, and Villegas.

The Real Academia de Bellas Artes, built in 1752, has a picture gallery containing some of the works of Murillo, Ribera, Zurbaran, Alonso Cano, and Rubens. Some interesting Goya sketches formerly in this collection have now been removed to the Prado.

V

LITERATURE AND THE DRAMA

Madrid is the centre of the intellectual life of Spain. It contains a number of academies, colleges, schools, and libraries. The Royal Academy was not founded till 1713; but, as Bourgoanne pointed out in 1789, “there are undoubtedly in Spain more learned men who modestly cultivate the sciences; more men of erudition who are thoroughly acquainted with the history and jurisprudence of their country; more distinguished men of letters and a greater number of poets, who have energy and a fertile and brilliant imagination, than is generally imagined.”

Science and letters suffered after the period of Quevedo, Cervantes, Calderon, and Garcilaso, and there was a rapid decline in learning until the eighteenth century. Under Charles III. the cultured life of Madrid was revived. Charles was opposed to the clerical restrictions upon knowledge, and the banning of science was not a part of his policy. He withstood the reactionary forces of the country, and, being himself a man of scholarly tastes, he re-awakened the moribund respect for culture. To encourage the production of books, Charles III. freed all printers from military service. He renewed the universities, built new schools, and treated teachers and professors with fairness and respect, declaring that education is the most important of all social affairs.

This revival of learning and of literature was unfortunately transient, for under Charles IV. free discussion was almost impossible in Spain; authors were gagged, and the Inquisition was revived. The study of moral philosophy was forbidden in the universities of the country, for Charles declared that he had no use for philosophers.