Part 1

SPANISH PAINTING

TEXT BY A. DE BERUETE Y MORET

(DIRECTOR OF THE PRADO MUSEUM, MADRID)

1921

EDITED BY GEOFFREY HOLME “THE STUDIO,” LTD., LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK

LIST OF ARTISTS WHOSE WORKS ARE REPRODUCED IN THIS VOLUME

IN COLOURS

PLATE El Greco (Domenico Theotocopuli) _La Gloria de Felipe II (The “Glory” of Philip II)_ III Francisco de Ribalta _San Pedro (Saint Peter)_ VII Don Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez _Venus y Cupido (Venus and Cupid)_ XII Francisco de Goya y Lucientes _El Columpio (The Swing)_ XXIV Joaquín Sorolla _Saliendo del Baño (After Bathing)_ XXXIII Luis Masriera _Sombras Reflejadas (Reflected Shadows)_ XXXVI José Pinazo _Crepusculo (Twilight)_ XXXIX José Benlliure Gil _Haciendo Bolillos (Lace-making)_ XLII Fernando Alvarez de Sotomayor _Paisanas Gallegos (Galician Peasant-women)_ XLV Francisco Sancha _Un Pueblo Andaluz (An Andalusian Village)_ XLVIII

IN MONOTONE

Hernando Yáñez de la Almedina _Santa Catalina (Saint Catherine)_ I Juan Pantoja de la Cruz _Philip II_ II El Greco (Domenico Theotocopuli) _San Pablo (Saint Paul)_ IV _El Entierro del Conde de Organ (The Burial of the Count of Orgaz)_ V _Retrato de un Caballero (Portrait of a Nobleman)_ VI Francisco de Zurbarán _El Beato Dominico Enrique Suson (The Dominican, Henry Suson)_ VIII Don Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez _Calabacillas el Bufon (Calabacillas, the Buffoon)_ IX _Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour)_ X “ “ “ “ (_detail_) XI _Philip IV_ XIII _Infante Baltasar Carlos_ XIV “ “ “ (_detail_) XV La Dama del Abanico (The Lady with a Fan) XVI Fray Juan Rizi de Guevara _Un Caballero Joven (A Young Cavalier)_ XVII Bartolomé Esteban Murillo _Moises tocando la Roca (Moses striking the Rock)_ XVIII _El Milagro de los Panes y los Peces (The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes)_ XIX _San Felix de Cantalisi y el Niño Jesu (St. Felix of Cantalisi and the Infant Christ)_ XX _La Caridad de Santo Tomas de Villanueva of Villanueva)_ XXI Don Juan Carreño de Miranda _Retrato de una Dama (Portrait of a Young Lady)_ XXII Claudio Coello _Don Juan de Alarcon_ XXIII Francisco de Goya y Lucientes _La Cucaña (The Greasy Pole)_ XXV _Autorretrato (Portrait of the Painter)_ XXVI _Conde de Fernan-Nuñez (detail)_ XXVII _Infante Don Carlos Maria Isidro_ XXVIII _La Condesa de Chinchou (detail)_ XXIX _El Duque de San Carlos_ XXX Eduardo Rosales _Mujer saliendo del Baño (Woman leaving the Bath)_ XXXI Mariano Fortuny _El Patio de la Alberca en la Alhambra (The Alberca Court in the Alhambra)_ XXXII Ignacio Zuloaga _La Señorita Souty_ XXXIV Eduardo Martinez Vazquez _Una Aldea de la Sierra de Gredos (Avila) (A Village in the Sierra de Gredos, Avila)_ XXXV Gonzalo Bilbao _Las Cigarreras (The Cigar-makers)_ XXXVII Ramón de Zubiaurre _Retrato de mi Esposa (Portrait of my Wife)_ XXXVIII Antonio Ortiz Echagüe _Supersticion (Superstition)_ XL José Gutíerrez Solana _Carnaval en la Aldea (The Village Carnival)_ XLI Claudio Castelucho _Niños Gitanos en la Playa (Gipsy Children on the Beach)_ XLIII Juan Cardona _Altar de Mayo (May Altar)_ XLIV Carlos Vazquez _Una Dolorosa (Our Lady of Sorrows)_ XLVI José Mª Lopez Mezquita _Pilarcita_ XLVII José de Marti Garces _Interior_ XLIX Nicolás Raurich _Terruños (Rough ground)_ L José Ramón Zaragoza _Viejos Bretones (Old Bretons)_ LI Conde de Aguiar _Retrato de un Torero (Portrait of a Bullfighter)_ LII

SPANISH PAINTING--WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EXHIBITION AT BURLINGTON HOUSE, LONDON NOVEMBER, 1920 TO JANUARY, 1921

The exhibition of Spanish Painting held in London in the galleries of the Royal Academy from November to January last, excited a lively interest in the English public and inspired numerous articles on the subject in English journals and reviews. If all of these were not in accord on certain issues and critics adopted various points of view, it may still be said that the crowds of visitors which it attracted and the manifold expressions of opinion it evoked supply the clearest evidence that the exhibition aroused the curiosity of the English public, and consequently may be regarded as a triumph for Spanish art and a success for its promoters.

The reasons underlying the interest which Spanish art awakens to-day in enlightened circles (this is the second exhibition of the kind which Spain has of late witnessed beyond her borders, recalling that of Paris in 1920) are worthy of reflection and may be said to have inspired the Royal Academy’s exhibition.

Spain--her life, history, customs, art--is often regarded subjectively as though enveloped in a haze, or through the medium of legend, which, however accommodating it may be to literary expression, is by no means conformable to the facts of history or present realities. Viewed in this picturesque manner and because of the isolation in which the country remained for generations, and perhaps still remains, it has attracted the attention of writers and poets, and even scientists and philosophers, unfamiliar with their theme and dubious in their assertions. Doubtless the typical, the true native spirit has not been misunderstood by the outside world. Thus in the case of Cervantes and Velázquez, their names are household words in every land. But the kind of knowledge to which we allude is not usually imparted by such lofty spirits, who speak to humanity from the heights, without distinctions of race or frontier. That which they accomplish is only a part of the national achievement. It is the medium in which it is fashioned, the environment in which it comes into being, its artistic matrix, which determines the precise type of racial endeavour. To its national character the new Spain cleaves, and by its light her ideas will be readjusted, her history interpreted, her present respected as in line with her tradition, which, in the sphere of things artistic, Spaniards regard as a potent factor in the advancement of world art.

Spain is familiarly spoken of as a country of distinctive character, and is so not only because of its geographical situation, which has kept it somewhat apart from frequented routes, but because it aspires to such a reputation. At the present time it is incessantly productive of art, its output exhibiting a specific character of its own, obvious and intelligible to those who examine it with sufficient care. Undoubtedly it has been influenced at certain periods by extraneous currents, but during the sixteenth century, when the true Spanish school was created, it was notably independent and unique. Its productions, these national qualities which above all determine that which is called a school, possess a character of their own, a special determinative essence, which can only be explained by metaphysical processes. But at the same time they display external manifestations, an ultimate expression, a speech, an idiom, so to speak, peculiarly national. And this speech in art is quite as fundamental as the spirit which determines the nature of the creation. All-powerful, or at least very great, is the spiritual capacity for creating mighty works _in mente_. But the various schools of art came into being not only because they enshrined an idea, but because they were able to give it form. The characteristics of the expression, not of the idea, of form, not of essence, these it is to which the critic should address himself in the first instance when he desires to differentiate between the works of one school and another, and when trying to distinguish the work typical of one artist from that of others of the same school, who have been less successful in following a common master. The creative idea, the spirit which animates every work, is distinct, according to the period of its origin, even in the case of the productions of the same race at different periods; but in expression its form is always similar, its ideas the same. As in literature writers of one nationality have to employ a common tongue, so in painting an expression equally conclusive, a palette, a technique, an idiom quite as definitive, determines the compositions typical of each race. If we find scattered throughout a museum where there are examples of all schools, a Saint by Greco, an ascetic figure by Ribera, a portrait by Velázquez, an image by Zurbarán, a visionary subject by Valdes Leal, a Virgin by Murillo, and a woman by Goya, it is probable that these works will contrast with one another too forcibly, or at least will not blend harmoniously. Each of them belongs to an epoch, and possesses a distinct creative and æsthetic spirit. But, even so, we will find that although the works belong to different schools, and variations and dissimilarities abound, all have one speech, one ultimate idiom in common; in a word, all have been painted in Spanish.

It is not easy to state precisely in what this ultimate expression consists, but on general lines it is possible to affirm of Spanish artists that their work is characterised by a decided tendency towards sincerity, simplicity of composition and tonal harmonies in grey. Velázquez appears to have fixed the character of the Spanish palette and technique: the scale of very subtle greys, the harmonies of grey and silver, the use of certain carmines and violets, first encountered in the work of Greco, were tested and employed by him, as were those coloured earths especially indigenous to Spain, the earth of Seville and the preparation of animal charcoal, the use of which is noticeable in his canvases. These determined the material elements by the aid of which was developed a method of painting as simple as characteristic. Velázquez, like the painters of the great Italian school and the schools of the North, grew tired of conventionalism in colour and perspective, and, employing an exuberant palette and gifted with vision of extraordinary keenness, turned to the natural, and, with the lesson of Greco before him, and by aid of his own gifts of observation, sincerity, and a supreme simplicity, did not employ more than the necessary colours to obtain those gradations of tone which to our eyes appear so natural and present the harmony afforded by reality, the master by choice and temperament inclining to those in which were combined all the shades of grey. He created by his unique palette the true and unmistakable Spanish style. Goya, more than a hundred years after him, during the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, a period when the national characteristics tended towards insipidity, maintained this traditional spirit and thus saved Spanish painting from becoming confounded with the works of his contemporaries in France and England.

The years which followed those of Goya, the remainder of the nineteenth century, those years of easy communication, of rapid transit, of frequent travelling, of international study and residence abroad, so much more advanced in some respects, were less rich for Spanish painting. Spanish artists, absent from their country, engaged in many departments of work and instruction, lost something of their former qualities. At the present time, in which there seems to have been born into the world a new assertion and exaltation of nationality, Spaniards have regained their ancient spirit, and while aspiring to absolute modernity, remain faithful to a tradition which is peculiarly their own, which makes for national individuality, and has caused them to be regarded with that interest which always accrues to the original, the characteristic, the intelligent, and consequently arouses attention and anticipation.

* * * * *

England has ever followed the progress of Spanish art with enthusiasm and interest. During the nineteenth century, the majority of the works of art which left Spain found a resting place in England. In London within recent years three exhibitions of Spanish painting ante-dated that of 1920--one in the New Gallery (1891), another in the Guildhall (1901), and the last in the Grafton Gallery (1913). All of them were rich in results, more especially the third, which was remarkable for its modern section. The difference in character between the exhibition of 1913 and that of the Royal Academy in 1920 consists more especially in the display of works belonging to English collections, the latter being composed for the most part of examples sent from Spain as an act of homage to the English people, and to assure them once more of the existence of a spiritual bond or tie between the two countries, which with the passage of time aspire to a more intimate relationship.

It was at first the intention of the organisers of the exhibition of 1920 not to send as representative of the older art any except the works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and a few pictures by Goya, as examples of the golden age of Spanish painting, and especially in view of the exceptional interest in Goya. But it was ultimately decided to furnish an exhibit completely representative of all epochs. At the same time the Spanish Committee recognised that the section devoted to Primitive Art--in which among the many artists represented the most remarkable was Ribera--was lacking in distinction. This it regretted and felt a pleasure in its ability to compensate for the omission by providing a full representation of the greater Spanish painters, and in being able to lend ten Grecos and twenty-one Goyas, preserved in Spain, to Burlington House, a thing until now impossible of accomplishment and which it will not be easy to repeat.

The works of the primitive period placed on view, though all of peculiar interest, and several of striking character, were still inadequate to give a just idea of the development of early art in the Iberian Peninsula. The first essays of Spanish art were indeed lacking in national characteristics. At a time when Italy and Flanders produced painters of distinctive note, Spain, and perhaps the whole Peninsula--for in this connection we must not forget Portugal--filled its churches, monasteries and convents with panels and altarpieces. With the exception of the names of several artists now identified, all of its productions are of doubtful paternity, its style is borrowed and in general is distinguished only by the possession of regional characteristics of a minor kind. Therefore the paintings on panel that it produced are to-day referred to, in order to distinguish them one from another, as belonging to the Castilian, Portuguese, Catalan, Aragonese or Valencian Schools. For this there is an historical reason. The Peninsula, at the time in which its early art was produced, was divided into different kingdoms and states, each absolutely independent and having its own history and traditions. Thus the kingdom of Aragon, with Valencia, was intimately connected with the Mediterranean, and came within the sphere of Italian influence. Castile was more closely related to the states of Flanders and the Rhine, admitting and developing Flemish and German tendencies. Catalonia possessed an art very similar to that of Provence. But I believe that all this work, chaotic, lacking in national expression, and in determinative characteristics, presents a difficult problem for its investigators. Add to this that these panels and altarpieces were often the joint work of several artists, one painting costumes, others specialising in heads and hands, others in drapery, still others in backgrounds, so that the whole resulted frequently in a composition confused and equivocal. All that can be said with any degree of certainty is that the production of this time was large, rich and of great merit, so far as that can be attained by a race of colourists who were lacking in discipline and insight.

This manifestation of pictorial art did not obtrude itself in any decided manner until the fourteenth century. To discover its origin we may have to compare it with the miniatures in the manuscripts of San Isidor, or the archaic mural decorations traceable by Byzantine art, and it would seem to possess a greater archæological than artistic interest.

Spanish art during the last years of the thirteenth century and until two centuries later is so incomplete in its details, presents so many diverse aspects, and the circumstances of its rise and tendency are so vague, that to venture any general opinions regarding it would be unwise. Its study has recently been confined to short monographs by various critics and scholars, both Spanish and foreign, which do not go beyond the discussion of specific works and artists, and the particular investigation of obscure titles and documents exhumed from the archives.

The arrival of Starnina and the Florentine Dello at the Court of Juan I of Castile in the second half of the fourteenth century, appears to have given a very great impetus to that style to which the Spanish painters were growing accustomed. But this Italianism notwithstanding, Flemish influences penetrated, if more lately, still more rapidly into Spain. The early Spaniards pursued and sought a realism in art which they were unable to find in that of Italy, hence their predilection for the style and manner of the Flemish and German painters and those of other countries whom they came to call painters of the North. The appearance of Van Eyck in the Peninsula in 1428, and that of other Flemish painters who arrived there about that time, aroused a true enthusiasm and imparted to Spanish art a tendency to copy faithfully from nature which henceforth came to be one of the characteristics which have never left it. Among these painters of the North it is strange to find, a little before the middle of the fifteenth century, an artist called Jorge Inglés (George the Englishman), so named, without doubt, from his origin, who did some important work, especially in the hospital of Buitrago, the study of which we heartily commend to the English public and critics. We should like to have sent this work to the exhibition of the Royal Academy, but its enormous dimensions, as well as other circumstances, rendered this impracticable.

During this epoch, the composition of Spanish works begins to show the use of colours prepared with oil, thus permitting the development of a technique more in conformity with the Spanish temperament. Consequently the new medium appears in the works of many masters, among the first of these recorded being _La Virgen de los Consellers_, painted and signed by Luis Dalmau in 1445.

Andalusia, a region which has come in more recent times to be regarded as the cradle of Spanish artists, produced at this time not a few painters. The work, _Saint Michael_, of the master Bartolomé de Cárdenas, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy, pertains to this rich and flourishing period, which gave an impetus to the forces then impelling all Spanish life toward the national union which came to pass in the reign of the Catholic kings. Two new centres of activity arose at this epoch, which greatly fostered the rise of Spanish civilisation and favoured the development of pictorial art--two cities glorious and historical in Spain--Toledo and Salamanca.

Side by side with this budding art--which was in a certain sense inspired by the schools of the north, but nevertheless began to display a national tendency--a few isolated artists, either by preference or training, still retained the Italian style. We recall the _Santa Catalina_ of Hernando Yáñez de la Almedina (Plate I.), shown at the exhibition, a work which has not been sufficiently appreciated and must be regarded as a beautiful example of that period.

Arising at the close of the epoch of national unity, the House of Austria, in the person of its most exalted representative, the Emperor Charles V, commenced to govern the destinies of Spain. The victorious expansion of Spanish arms, both in the Old World and the New, during the first half of the sixteenth century, had but little influence upon artistic effort, and none of the Spanish painters of this period are regarded as the equals of their Italian, Flemish, German or Dutch contemporaries. And our artists, at a time when the entire national fortunes were hazarded in campaign after campaign, had enough to do to maintain an epoch of gestation, to comprehend the laws and trace the spiritual current of the Renaissance which now dawned upon the world of culture. This great movement failed also to take a national direction with Spanish artists, and the few books and treatises on art printed in Spain during this period are poor in conception and lacking in information.

Even to mention the names of the painters of the period, it would be necessary to burden this critical sketch with a list of artists of secondary importance. In his art Alonso Berruguete was certainly Italian, but in spite of this, he gave to his works a marked national stamp, maintaining in the central portion of the Peninsula a patriotic inspiration which resulted later in a separate school of culture. Valencia, with artists trained in Italy, was preparing a great reputation for the future, and then a painter of individuality, isolated in a minor province, and having few relations with the Court, created with his brush an austere art, a little dry and stiff, ascetic in its inspiration and scarcely suggestive at first sight, but striking in its individuality, and reflecting that spirit of Spanish theology and mysticism which was to dawn somewhat later. I refer to Luis de Morales, the maker of all these _Dolorosas_ and _Ecce Homos_, so unmistakable and so much esteemed in Spain.