The Story of SevilleGallichan, Walter M. (Walter Matthew)
History
The Story of Seville
Gallichan, Walter M. (Walter Matthew)
Seville (Spain)
Three other rooms, of small size, complete the Museo. The pictures they
contain are not of great importance, but there are a few interesting
canvases in the old sacristy, leading from the south transept of the
Salón. Among them are several compositions of the early fifteenth
century, classified as belonging to the _Escuela Flamenca_, by artists
whose names have not been preserved. The tones in many of these antique
pictures are wonderful, and they are all painted with a naïve
simplicity. The colour in the two compositions, El Señor Coronado de
espinas (thorns), and La Anunciación de Nuestra Señora is especially
good. The long lean figures and conventional grief depicted in El
enterramiento del Señor, strongly resemble the similar picture by
Sanchez de Castro, in the house of Murillo.
The works of Francisco Frutet will be found in this room. The finest, a
grand triptych, entitled, Jesús en el camino (road) del Calvario, is a
work of much beauty. The central picture of the Crucifixion is finely
conceived, and Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell thinks that several of the
figures bear a resemblance to the Spasimo de Sicilia of Raphael.
El Juicio Final, by Martin Vos, a Flemish painter, who worked in
Seville during the early years of the sixteenth century, is a
quaintly-conceived allegorical picture. This finest portion represents
the hosts of the wicked. The drawing of the figures is good, but the
canvas is much crowded.
_The Statuary in the Museo._
Before studying Spanish statuary, it is well to remember that this
branch of art never attained to the same level in the Peninsula as the
sister art of painting. The reason of this lack of development is not
difficult to appreciate, when we remember that statuary was executed,
almost without exception, for the religious uses of the Catholic Church.
The images were needed to increase the pious fervour of the populace;
they were carried in the religious processions, and often they were
credited with miracle-working powers. The one necessity for a Spanish
statue was that it should be an exact imitation of life. The more
realistic the illusion, the greater was the power of the statue to
conform to the requirements of the Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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