Madrid: an historical description and handbook of the Spanish capital — John Shaqi
Madrid: an historical description and handbook of the Spanish capitalCalvert, Albert Frederick
History
Madrid: an historical description and handbook of the Spanish capital
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Art -- Spain -- Madrid; Madrid (Spain) -- Description and travel
In 1822, he obtained the royal permission to visit France. He went first
to Paris, where he was hailed by the young French painters, afterwards
residing at Bordeaux, where he stayed for nearly five years before
returning to Spain. In 1828, his restless spirit passed away.
Perhaps the finest of Goya’s portraits are those of the king and queen
on horseback. It was Gautier who remarked of Goya that at times “he
paints with the delicacy of that delicious Gainsborough, at other times
he has the solid touch of Rembrandt.” Goya was one of the first of the
moderns, an artist who broke from cramping tradition, and forced his way
to eminence and even to popularity in a few years.
There is a long gap in the art history of Spain between Francisco Goya
and Fortuny. Mariano Fortuny was not a native of Madrid, but he came to
the city in 1866. There are two of his pictures in the Museum of Modern
Art in Madrid. One is a sketch for the “Battle of Tetuan,” and the other
“The Queen Regent with Doña Isabel exhorting the Spanish Troops to
withstand the Carlists.” Between Goya and Fortuny there are no links in
the historic succession of artists, unless we regard Rosales and Galofré
as national in the tendency of their art. There are two of Rosales’
pictures in the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid.
The National Museum of Painting and Sculpture, otherwise the Museo del
Prado, was founded in the reign of Charles III., and planned by
Villanueva. The work was interrupted by the war with France, and
finished in the time of Ferdinand VII. Architecturally considered, the
exterior of the museum is handsome and massive. Its chief defect is the
poor quality of the light within. Its glory is the vast treasure of
masterpieces of all the schools of Europe.
The works of the early Spanish painters may be here studied in the Long
Gallery, beginning with Gallegos, whose pictures are catalogued as those
of an unknown master. Pedro Berruguete shows the first example of the
Italian influence. In the paintings of Luis de Morales we trace the
natural Spanish style, and discern that note of dramatic gloom and
religious sentiment that characterises the true painters of Spain. Juan
de Juanes, much esteemed in his age, reveals an Italianised art. In the
works of Navarrete there is visible the influence of Titian, who worked
with him at the Escorial Palace.
El Greco, who was taught in Venice, stands alone. The picture of “Jesus
dead in the Arms of God the Father” is a representative work of this
weird genius, whose art was Spanish, in spite of his Cretan origin. El
Greco’s art is also conveyed in all its power in “The Baptism of
Christ.” Many of this painter’s canvases are in Toledo, two are at the
Escorial, one in the Cathedral of Seville, and his portrait, painted by
himself, is in the Museo Provincial at Seville. The Prado Gallery
contains nine of El Greco’s works.
Ribera is an artist whose work is singularly modern as regards
technique, though he lived from 1588 to 1656.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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