Understanding Spanish Renaissance Painting and Its Influences
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Spanish painting during the Renaissance is characterized as sculpture, marked by the scarcity of secular subjects, which are so common in Italian or Nordic painting, and its almost exclusive dedication to religious themes. Only in some selected environments (nobility, royal collections) do we find mythological paintings, mostly of Italian origin, and portraits. The key customers of Spanish painters were the Church.
Moreover, Spanish painters were slow to join the new full Renaissance style and remained influenced by the strong Flemish techniques introduced in the fifteenth century, characterized by meticulous technique, a taste for detail, and realism that persisted during the early sixteenth century.
First Third of the Sixteenth Century
Pedro Berruguete
Father sculptor of that name, he entered the Renaissance in Castile. He traveled to Italy and assimilated some features like the sense of space, the use of light, and the modeling of figures. He was primarily a painter of altarpieces.
– AUTO DE FE (Museo del Prado).
Fernando Yanez de Almedina
Worked in Valencia and was one of the first painters to show a clear influence of the Italian Cinquecento.
– SANTA CATALINA (Museo del Prado).
Second Third of the Sixteenth Century
The style of Raphael imposed in Spain, marking the entry of Renaissance classicism.
Juan de Juanes
He was one of the introducers. He gained great fame, and his style is characterized by sweetness.
– THE SACRAMENT.
Luis de Morales
An artist from Extremadura, he sought essentially spiritual beauty. He elongated figures, and his most characteristic works are religious.
– THE MADONNA AND CHILD.
Third Third of the Sixteenth Century
At this stage, we can mention several types of painters:
a) The artists in the decoration of El Escorial.
b) Portraits of the Court.
c) El Greco.
Designers of the Escorial that Philip tried to contract included Cambiasso, Zuccaro, or Tibaldi. They also worked with Spanish painters.
Juan Fernández Navarrete “El Mudo”
was one of the first painters to bring the influence of Venetian painting to Spain. He was a painter of great quality.
– THE BEHEADING OF SANTIAGO.
Portrait of the Court
They are characterized by thoroughness of Flemish origin. These artists gave their portraits an air of cool detachment and severe arrogance.
He made several portraits for the court of Philip II.
– PORTRAIT OF MARY TUDOR (Museo del Prado).
Alonso Sanchez Coeli
Of Portuguese origin, became the most prestigious portraitist of the Court, noted for his strict accuracy in the details of costumes and jewelry.
– PORTRAIT OF ISABEL CLARA EUGENIA (Daughter of Philip II).
– PORTRAIT OF PHILIP II.
He is the pivotal figure of sixteenth-century Spanish painting. Born on the island of Crete in a Catholic family.
In 1560, he went to Venice, where he encountered the Venetian painting technique, incorporating loose and free, rich and sumptuous color. El Greco preferred the cool tones of Mannerism.
Subsequently, he traveled to Rome, familiarizing himself with the work of Michelangelo but feeling influenced by Mannerist painters, serpentinatta form, the pressure of space, cool tones, violent foreshortening, or compositional schemes.
El Greco:
– Mannerist elongation of the figures.
– Expressive faces with large eyes and wet expressions.
– Compositions that are well-studied. Predominantly compositions based on geometric patterns.
– Figures usually occupy virtually the whole picture.
– Good knowledge of perspective.
– Using bright colors, but cool.
– His technique is loose, and very colorful with little drawing precision.
– E XPULSIÓN of the merchants.
– EL Spoliation (Cathedral of Toledo).
– Martyrdom of Saint Maurice or Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion.