Spain -- Description and travel; Spain -- History; Spain -- Social life and customs
Space forbids our giving even an approximate catalogue of Spanish
painters; we can merely single out for mention the two or three of
highest rank in their respective provinces. In Valencia we have Ribalta
(1551-1628), Juan de Joames (Vicente Macip) (1523-79), and the great but
gloomy Ribera (1588-1609). To this school also belong the artists of
Catalonia and of the Balearic Isles. In Castile are Navarette (El Mudo)
(1526-79), Morales (1509-86), Theotocopuli (El Greco) (died 1578), and
the younger Herrera (died 1686). But the greatest painters are from
Andalusia and from Seville. The well-known names of Herrera the Elder
(1576-1656), Zurbaran (1598-1662), Murillo (1618-82), Velazquez
(1623-60), suffice to show its pre-eminence. The eighteenth century, in
art as well as in literature, was a time of utter decadence; Goya
(1746-1820), the caricaturist, is the only artist we need mention; but,
like its literature, Spanish art is now at length rising from its long
sleep. Fortuny (1838-74), has made himself a European reputation;
though, through his early death, the pictures he has left give promise
only of what his future might have been. Rosales (1840-73), though less
known by foreigners, is of equal, if not of greater merit; like Fortuny,
he died in his early prime. Madrazo, Jimenez, Fradilla, and others,
though not of more than national reputation, yet prove that art is not
extinct in Spain.
In what have been called the industrial arts Spain was formerly very
rich, and, but for the wretched economical policy and administration of
the Government since the seventeenth century, would probably have held
her own against other countries. The gold and silver ornaments still
worn by the peasantry in a few districts perpetuate designs and methods
of workmanship originally derived from the Moors, and much of the church
work is still of great excellence. No less beautiful is the iron-work,
in which a grand effect is often produced by simply noble proportions in
the gates, _rejas_, and screens of her cathedrals and churches; and in
another sphere, in the manufacture of arms, and of inlaying steel or
iron with arabesque patterns of gold and silver, an art which has been
lately revived with great success in Biscay and the Basque Provinces. In
porcelain and pottery the majolica ware, made at Valencia, was renowned
throughout Europe; and the Moorish glazed and lustred ware, the
manufacture of which remained a secret till the present century, is
greatly sought after by amateurs. The wine-jars (_tinajas_ and
_alpujarras_), the porous pottery (_bucaros_), the _azulejos_ or
decorated tiles, continue traditions originally derived through the
Arabs from the East, but which had almost expired when the manufacture
was faintly revived under royal patronage in the times of Charles III.,
to start again on a stronger life with the aid of English capital in our
own times. Spanish glass is sometimes curious, and much of the stained
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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