Transcript baroque_spanish

ART HISTORY 132
Baroque: Spanish
Diego Velázquez
(1599-1660)
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biography:
– 1623: became court painter to Phillip IV
– 1628: Rubens’ visit to SP influenced V
to visit Italy
– 1629: lives in Italy for year and a half
– 1649: second visit to Italy
style: “Realist” tendency
– influence of Caravaggio’s interest in
surface textures
– color: Venetian richness (re: Titian)
– brushwork: “painterly”
– light: “chiaroscuro” & fascination w/
depicting fleeting effects
themes:
– genre scenes
– mythological
– royal portraits (political & religious)
Velázquez
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Waterseller of Seville (c. 1625)
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scene: genre
theme: mercy
tendency: realism
• age & facial features
• clothing
composition: stable; intelligible
color: muted, narrow range
light/shadow: tenebrism & chiaroscuro
spatial order: shallow
• overlapping
• foreshortening
surface textures:
• reflections
• beads of water
(Left) Detail from VELÁZQUEZ’s Waterseller of Seville (c. 1625)
vs.
(right) detail from CARAVAGGIO’s Entombment (c. 1600)
Detail of water droplet on surface of jug
in VELÁZQUEZ’s Waterseller of Seville (c. 1625)
Velázquez
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title: a.k.a. “Los Borrachos”
patron: Phillip IV
narrative: mock homage
figures: ancient god w/ realistic humans
spatial order: shallow
perspective: limited to overlapping and
foreshortening
composition: frieze-like arrangement
• bilateral groupings
– left  ancients
– right  moderns
color: muted earth tones
light/shadow: manipulated
• bleached-out Bacchus
• evenly distributed humans
(Left) Detail from VELÁZQUEZ’s Los Borrachos (c. 1625)
vs.
(right) CARAVAGGIO’s Bacchus (c. 1600)
Velazquez
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Los Borrachos (con’t.)
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contemporary figures:
• realistic, vigorous naturalism
– ruddy faces
– leathery skin
– plain garments
• complex gestures, gazes & poses
– enlivens narrative, despite
frieze-like composition
Velázquez
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Surrender at Breda (1635)
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significance: inspired by 1st trip to Italy
subject: history painting
theme: SP/Catholic triumph/conquest
over Dutch (Protestant)
narrative: courtly tone modified from
Perugino’s Delivery
composition: Classical frieze-like
arrangement
figures: densely packed
landscape: panoramic
brushwork: “painterly”
color: vibrant
light: evenly distributed
perspective: aerial
(Left) detail from VELÁZQUEZ’s Surrender of Breda (c. 1635)
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(right) detail from PERUGINO’s Italian Early Ren Delivery of the Keys (c. 1475)
(Left) VELÁZQUEZ’s Spanish Baroque Surrender at Breda (c. 1650)
vs.
(right) UCCELLO’s Italian Early Renaissance Battle of San Romano (c. 1450)
Velázquez
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Maids of Honor (c. 1650)
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title: a.k.a. Las Meninas
genre: royal group portrait
theme: implicit Humanism
• comparison to Alexander the
Great visiting his painter (Apelles)
in studio
narrative: spatial complexities
• foreground  daughter,
attendants, & court
painter
• mirror  reveals King Phillip IV
& Queen
• doorway  chamberlain
Velázquez
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Las Meniñas (con’t.)
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self-portrait
• painting as endeavor worthy of
courtly recognition
• pose: frontal
• V ordained into royalty
– insignia of Royal Order of
Santiago
– stylized red cross
– did not receive honor of
knighthood until 1659
(three years after execution
of painting)
Velázquez
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Las Meniñas (con’t.)
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Princess Margarita
• five-year old daughter of Philip IV
& second wife
• brushwork: painterly
– elaborate dress & jewels
– multiplicity of textures
– details dissolve into
intuitive, chaotic mixture of
color
IMAGE INDEX
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VELÁZQUEZ. Self-portrait (1640), Oil on canvas, 45.5 x 38
cm., Museo Provincial, Valencia, Spain.
VELÁZQUEZ. The Waterseller of Seville (c. 1625), Oil on
canvas, 42 x 31 7/8”, Wellington Museum, London.
(Left) detail from VELÁZQUEZ’s The Waterseller of Seville
(c. 1625); and (right) detail from CARAVAGGIO’s
Entombment (c. 1600).
Detail of water droplet on surface of jug in VELÁZQUEZ’s
The Waterseller of Seville
VELÁZQUEZ. Los Borrachos (1628-29), Oil on canvas, 65 x
88 ½ in., Museo del Prado, Madrid.
(Left) Bacchus from VELÁZQUEZ’s Los Borrachos (c.
1625); and (right) CARAVAGGIO’s Bacchus (c. 1600).
Detail of realistic figures in VELAZQUEZ’s Los Borrachos.
VELÁZQUEZ. The Surrender of Breda (c. 1635), Oil on
canvas, 10’ x 12’, Museo del Prado, Madrid.
IMAGE INDEX
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(Left) detail of Christ delivering keys to Saint Peter from
PERUGINO’s Early Renaissance Delivery of the Keys (c.
1475); and (right) detail of handing over the keys from
VELÁZQUEZ’s The Surrender of Breda (c. 1635).
(Left) VELÁZQUEZ’s Spanish Baroque The Surrender of
Breda (c. 1635); and (right) UCCELLO’s Early Renaissance
Battle of San Romano (c. 1450).
VELAZQUEZ. Las Meninas; or “The Maids of Honor
(1656), Oil on canvas, 10’ 5" x 9’ 1”, Museo del Prado,
Madrid.
Detail of self-portrait from VELÁZQUEZ’s Las Meninas.
Detail of Princess Margarita from VELÁZQUEZ’s Las
Meninas.