Spanish Baroque Masters: Ribera and Zurbarán
Spanish Baroque Painting: Styles and Context
Facing the polychrome Baroque imagery, in the national tradition, painting of this period shows a permeability to illumination, color, art, and models from abroad. Italy and Flanders in the XVII century were the mirror where the Hispanic artist would be reflected.
Styles and Influences
Two streams dominated the Golden Age in the first half of the XVII century: naturalism and tenebrism. Around 1650, painters mimicked the Flemish style of Rubens. The taste for rich color, dramatic compositions, and loose brush technique blended Flemish influences with the Venetian backlights imposed by Titian. Historians have called this synthesis “Baroque realism“.
Clients and Genres
The Church was the main client. Monastic orders stand out among the religious series. The Hispanic tradition of the altarpiece box continues, and large altar boxes arise in the side chapels. Oratories in private houses and domestic pious tableaus were also common. Mythological painting genres had barely any incidence. The profane genres that enjoyed the most success were portraiture and still life.
Key Artists of Tenebrist Naturalism
José Ribera (Spagnoletto)
He helped build the great Neapolitan school, which recognized him as its master. In Rome, he came into contact with Caravaggio‘s disciples. Three years later, he resided in Naples, a city and style he would never abandon. His style varies from naturalism to his own tenebrist Caravaggesque positions, which synthesize the idiosyncratic Mediterranean color and light of Rubens and Titian.
The main Neapolitan customers were religious institutions and the Spanish viceroys, whom the Duke of Osuna protected. For him, Ribera depicted:
- Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew
- St. Jerome Penitent
- St. Peter
- St. Sebastian
- the great Calvary
For his successor, the Duke of Alcala, he painted The Bearded Lady.
In 1635, Ribera abandons the dark, clear light and becomes exceptionally colorful. He painted an Immaculate Conception; this image would influence Murillo‘s Purísimas.
In 1637, he simultaneously painted mythological themes, such as Apollo Flaying Marsyas, with biblical topics, such as Isaac Blessing Jacob. He also started decorating the Neapolitan monastery of San Martino, painting a cycle of prophets and apostles in the church nave and the Communion of the Apostles in the presbytery sacristy.
He sent works to royal collections: The Dream of Jacob and Martyrdom of St. Philip, Miracle of San Gennaro in the Naples Cathedral. After the popular fisherman’s uprising against Spanish rule led by Massaniello, he painted the equestrian portrait of Don Juan José of Austria, who had put down the uprising.
Francisco de Zurbarán
Francisco de Zurbarán, transmitting in his canvases the same love as in image-reliefs and processional sculptor steps. He was a painter. He trained in Seville, then took refuge in Madrid until his death, his success driven by the young Murillo. Zurbarán was at court, invited by Velázquez, to participate in the decoration of the Hall of Realms, where he painted The Labours of Hercules, and Philip IV appointed him his “painter to His Majesty”.
His style always moved within the tenebrist naturalism of Caravaggio. In the final period, his paintings also show Murillo‘s influence. Zurbarán will go down in history as the “painter of friars“, depicting monastic life cycles. He received large religious orders from 1626 to 1638. He worked for many monasteries and performed works such as The Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas, for the altarpiece of the Order of Preachers.
He also worked for the Carthusian monasteries of Jerez and Seville and painted works for the sacristy such as St. Hugh in the Refectory.
Zurbarán created series of evangelical, biblical, and secular subjects, integrated by 12 and 7 characters; these were often sold in the Indies.