This next video covers Baroque art in Spain.
And the Baroque in Spain has some similarities to that of Italy,
but with some differences, so we'll try to point those out as we go along.
First off, we tend to see more macabre,
grittier scenes in Spain. We see a lot of representations in the form of
wooden sculptures. Some sculptures were used in processions --
religious processions, Holy Week processions. One of the most famous sculptors at
the time was Gregorio Fernández.
What we see here is a wooden sculpture that polychromed.
This one was not used in processions. It was used in an altarpiece,
but it reveals some of those ideas of Baroque Realism.
It's very vivid. It looks very alive, and by
choosing to represent the Reclining Christ
as polychromed -- painted wood --
instead of using marble. You create a very different effect. You make the figure look
much more alive! Much more vivid!
And so, you can really highlight the pain and the suffering -- and remember that at this
time, things like
the Spiritual Exercises, contemplating the suffering of Christ
were very, very important, and so sculptures like this
were used as tools in achieving those exercises, those prayers,
things like that. So I'm showing you a couple of views of
the same sculpture. And the idea here is that he's slightly tilted to the side,
so that you can clearly see the fifth wound here. You can his wound in a different
version [photo] here. The nail wounds are clearly visible,
so the idea here is that those part of your contemplation
and part of the visual that's being created. And about 5 feet long,
so it's a a little less than life-size.
What we'll mainly be focusing on is painting!
And so we'll start off looking at José de Ribera --
or Jusepe de Ribera. He went by both names.
He worked primarily in southern Italy, which at the time was a Spanish
territory,
and so he was connected to both traditions:
Italian and Spanish. So as we look at this work, "St. Jerome with the
Angel,"
we can see that he's clearly drawing on some of the traditions of
Caravaggio.
So, if you remember back to the Contarelli chapel in Rome,
done by Caravaggio, where you have those three scenes of St. Matthew,
this is very similar to the "Inspiration of St. Matthew," where St.
Matthew was dressed in red, and then you have the angel above him inspiring him.
Well here, this is where St. Jerome has gone off into the desert. He's removed
himself from
the temptations of the city, and he's gone off, and he is leaving the traditions
of paganism behind. He's contemplating his mortality.
He's contemplating the ideas of salvation perhaps of
Christianity. And the idea that he's going off to write
his translation. He's going to create The Vulgate [Latin translation of the Bible]. And so,
what we see here is St. Jerome looking
older, but also weathered. If we zoom in, if you can
just see this passage here, this portion of his stomach.
It looks slack and loose, and it looks so
very real, so the idea hear is you have a combination of
the toned flesh, the pale flesh of the angel, who's appearing to him and inspiring him
in a vision, and then you have the weathered
look of Jerome, who's been out in the desert suffering.
So, very, very important in this period
of Counter Reformation Spain. Spain is a very Catholic area at this point.
José de Ribera also created the Martyrdom of St. Philip. This is
also strikingly similar to
The Martyrdom or Crucifixion of St. Peter, which was from that Cerasi
Chapel by Caravaggio.
And, so you have the same idea where the martyr -- that figure who is about to be killed
is spotlit -- right in the center. José de Ribera is definitely is working in a Baroque
Realism tradition.
And so you see the body being stretched, and then you
see one of his executioners. They are usually very
faceless. This one is coming out towards us -- we can
see a little bit of his face. But really he just looks kind of monstrously large,
and he's this foreshortened figure that's coming out towards us.
So, it highlights the brutality of it. It's definitely placing it in a classical
period or
period or in the time around Christ. So he's tried to add
these classical columns to orient you there. But it's a very gritty scene overall.
You can see the dirtiness of the flesh, the wear on the body.
And all this is very common in Ribera's work.
Another example of Ribera's work
is a "Boy with a Club Foot." And what we sometimes see in Spanish painting is an
interest in the unusual --
an interest in the unexpected. Ribera actually created a very famous work
of a bearded woman. There's a number of representations
of dwarfs [in the work of Velázquez], and in this example José de Ribera is
representing a boy with club foot. And so we see here
is a boy who, even with all the trials and tribulations that life has thrown
him,
even though he clearly a man of
very few means,
he looks very happy. He's smiling, and this is the first example where we've
seen someone really smiling with their teeth here.
We really don't see that very frequently in paintings -- big smiles are usually
associated with
the lower classes -- so that could be a reason why Ribera is incorporating here.
But also the idea that that this young man
isn't bothered by his condition -- that he seems very happy,
and that he has faith, and we know that he has faith
because he's holding a little note that says "give me
for the love of God" ["DA MIHI ELEMOSINAM PROPTER AMOREM DEI"] -- basically
please get me alms! And he's holding on to his crutch, but in a very grand way
almost like
a king, or almost like he's going out on a hunt. So even for one who
is facing such challenges, he's being presented in a very, very
grand way. He's standing up high on the horizon, as if he
controls all of this land. And Ribera's not creating
a large panel painting that would happen
have overwhelmed the figure [of the boy], he's really making this figure dominate the scene.
So it's somewhat unusual. Our next
focus piece is Francisco de Zurbarán's "Still Life with Lemons, Oranges, and a
Rose" from 1633 -- it's actually signed and dated.
And so what we see here is a three-part still life -- so remember still lives are new
subjects. We really didn't have those before -- so still lives,
landscapes, genre scenes (genre scenes are just scenes of everyday life).
These are new things during this period, new subjects
that are in addition to portraits
and then history paintings. So let's focus in on this still live. What we see here
is the lemons, the oranges with some blossoms on top of it, and then a rose and
a cup of water.
So, usually the first thing people think of is the Trinity --
this idea that there must be some kind of symbolism in this very carefully
arranged group. You have three parts --
ideas of God the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.
Other possibility could be associations with the Virgin Mary.
So a lot of people say there's this cup of water -- this beautiful ceramic cup --
sitting on a silver
pewter plate, and then it has a pure cup of water in it. So
the idea of speaking to purity, and then a rose, and a rose is often associated with the
Virgin,
And this rose actually has no thorns -- it's very, very hard to see here.
But there's actually a stem, and it has no thorns.
So, in the fact that it's this beautiful thing with
nothing bad or dangerous about it --
everything bad has been taken away -- and not to the Virgin was equated
to, or
associated with. And then also we have these white
blossoms -- these orange blossoms -- which always smell so sweet.
These can also be associated with purity, so some people believe that as well.
Some people have associated the fruit with the passion [of Christ],
so there have been a number of readings to it, but it's important to know that there
most likely is some kind of larger Christian significance to this
arrangement, and that
still lives aren't just to be read
as literal representations of whatever they are.
You are usually supposed to read it a bit more deeply --
symbolically, allegorically. There is usually a number of levels to get
through, so that something to think about.
Our most famous painter from what we call the Spanish Golden Age
is Diego Velázquez. He created this painting when
he was relatively young. So this is one of his early paintings.
It's called "Old Woman Cooking Eggs," and what we see here
is painting that really shows off his skills. This is a period where
Velázquez
is making his way as a painter, and eventually he will be named "Painter
of the King [Pintor del Rey] to the Habsburg court, and
clearly he's trying to show off what he can do. And so, what we see here
in "'The Old Woman cooking Eggs" is that he's showing us his ability
to represent a variety of different materials. It's overwhelming
the variety that he has here. So first off, focusing in on the
action that's happening here with this old woman cooking eggs, is you can
these vessel holding the eggs, and you really can't the eggs
cooking before your very eyes. You can see them becoming
solidified. And then you can see a vessel that's brass or different
metal vessels. You can see
a ceramic vessel that's glazed on top and more basic earthenware on the
bottom,
a knife that lays across with a perfect shadow ,a metal spoon back here,
a basket, so just a huge variety
of different object that he's representing -- almost like a still life,
but then he's making it more of a narrative scene. We're not sure what the story is
here --
if there is a story, we're lost the source for it,
but there seems to be a play of opposites happening -- that's what some people have said --
where you have an older woman and a young boy, so old and young
male and female, and so all this kind of acting as a contrast,
again showing what he can do. He can paint old people; he paint
young people; he can paint men; he can paint women. So clearly, as young man,
Diego Velázquez is showing off what he can do in this painting.
And if you have a chance to zoom in on it, definitely do so.
Another famous work by Velázquez is "Los Borrachos" -- and "Los Borrachos"
is a painting of the drinkers or the drunkards.
And so what we see here is Velázquez's
work in a mythological or pagan subject,
so of course we're in very Catholic, Counter Reformation Spain, so
if Velázquez is going to work in this type of subject matter, he has to do it pretty
cautiously.
He spends time in Italy. He's exposed to this type of subject
matter,
but he just have to do it a little differently in Spain, and so what we see
here is a representation of Bacchus
very similar to how we might see a Bacchus by Caravaggio -- a Bacchus that looks very earthy,
and like a boy that, you know, would just be in your studio that you could paint.
And then we see him here with men, who clearly have that gritty,
aged skin -- kind of like that contrast we saw in the Ribera between the angel
and St. Jerome. So, men who have been working,
and one of them is being crowned by Bacchus. And the idea here is probably
that these men have been working all day.
and the idea is at the end of the day they're enjoying their drink,
and that's what Bacchus provides -- he provides leisure and respite
and relaxation. So, that's what we see actually represented in this
painting. Another Velázquez is the surrender at Breda.
At this point, he had become painter of the king.
The king is Philip IV. And Philip IV at this points is
a wonderful collector of art, but, at this point, the
Habsburg dynasty is losing power; there starting to lose lands;
and they're running out of money. They are bankrupting themselves. They're not
getting as much gold
in the New World they once did. However, that doesn't stop them from using a lot
of propaganda,
so we see here are things like "The Surrender at Breda," which was displayed
in one of the palaces in Madrid [Palacio del Buen Retiro] in the Hall of the Realms to display how
big and how powerful the Spanish Empire was.
So what we see here is a general receiving
the surrender up the group at Breda, so this is in
northern Europe. And so what we see here is kind of a rag-tag army that's
presenting the key to the general here. And the Spanish side clearly looks much
more organized,
much more powerful, and you can see there's
think it's burning in the background, but the idea here is that the Spanish
weren't brutal in the way they took over this town,
and they were very kind about it -- at least that's how they would like you
they were -- they would wanted you to think they
conducted this conquering -- or re-conquering right to put down any
revolts. So, this functions as part of the propaganda -- even though Spain is
kind of on the downward spin at this point.
And, in fact, the Habsburgs will eventually
fall out of power. Velázquez's most famous work
is "Las Meninas" -- a very, very famous painting, and key message here is
that Velázquez is asserting his
social status. It's, of course, celebrating the royal family.
The way it's created is extremely unusual.
Nothing like this had ever been painted before.
So, what we see here is Velázquez, who's putting himself
in your room with the royal family. We have the infanta here -- the daughter of
the king.
And then we have the king and queen just entering into the room, and we don't see
their
bodies represented -- you just see the reflection [of their faces and upper bodies].
And so, if fact, we are in the place of the king and queen, and, in fact, this would have
been in the king's
office. So we become the king, as we're viewing this
painting. And so we see the infanta, the king and queen
behind her, the ladies-in-waiting or the Las Meninas -- the maids of honor
for the infanta. We see two dwarfs here, which are common in the court,
a dog that's being slightly tormented, chaperone and a bodyguard,
a man who's
opening the doors as the king and queen move through. And the moment here is as the
king and queen enter,
everyone's stopping to look up, of course, because they're that main attraction.
Veázquez is here as I mentioned, and then there's copies
after Rubens up here [decorating the walls of the room]. Velázquez really is trying to say:
you know I am a painter of high status; I hang out
with the king and queen; I am an individual of great significance.
And, in fact, he had this cross of St. James painted onto his chest.
What is he painting here? Probably it is supposed to be "Las Meninas."
It could be a large portrait of the infanta; it could be a large portrait of the king and fact that could be a quick chat the key
queen. There's a lot of debate about this work that will continue to
happen over a long period of time.
The last Velázquez is the Roekby Venus. Clearly he's grappling with ideas of
mythology and images from Italy. We see here
rather than a front-facing Venus, one who's turned away from us.
But, again, he's playing with ideas of reflection, and clearly he's incorporating
that Cupid with the wings. And he's also exploring ideas of vanity.
Our final examples come from the Ultra Baroque period [in Mexico], just showing you some churches
very quickly,
where you can see some of the ornate decoration that's included
in Santa Prisca and then
Santa Maria Tonantzintla [I finish this rushed discussion of the Ultra Baroque in Mexico in another video.]