Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Friday, 19 April 2013
Juan de Flandes.
He
was an Early
Netherlandish painter
who was active in Spain from
1496 to 1519; his actual name is unknown. He
was born around 1460 in Flanders (modern
Belgium)
He
is only documented after he became an artist at the court of Isabella
I of Castile in Spain, where he is first mentioned in the accounts in
1496, and described as "court painter" by 1498, continuing
in her service until her death in 1504. He mostly painted
accomplished portraits of the royal family, but also most of a large
group of small panels for a polyptych altarpiece for Isabella, now
widely dispersed with the largest group of panels in the royal
collection in Madrid.
El
Greco
El greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 7 April 1614) was a
painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El
Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname, a reference to his national
Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his
full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος
(Doménikos Theotokópoulos), often adding the word Κρής (Krēs,
"Cretan").
El
Greco received his initial training as an icon painter of the Cretan
school, the leading centre of post-Byzantine art. In addition to
painting, he probably studied the classics of ancient Greece, and
perhaps the Latin classics also; he left a "working library"
of 130 books at his death, including the Bible in Greek and an
annotated Vasari. Candia was a center for artistic activity where
Eastern and Western cultures co-existed harmoniously, where around
two hundred painters were active during the 16th century, and had
organized a painters' guild, based on the Italian model. In 1563, at
the age of twenty-two, El Greco was described in a document as a
"master" ("maestro Domenigo"), meaning
he was already a master of the guild and presumably operating his own
workshop.Crete was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and
the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master
within that tradition before travelling at age 26 to Venice, as other
Greek artists had done.[2] In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened
a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy,
El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the
Venetian Renaissance. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he
lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received
several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings.
El
Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by
his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El
Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism,
while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for
poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis.
El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so
individual that he belongs to no conventional school.[3] He is best
known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or
phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with
those of Western painting.
Luis
de Morales
Luis
de Morales (1512 - 9 May 1586) was a Spanish painter born in Badajoz,
Extremadura. Known as "El Divino", most of his work was of
religious subjects, including many representations of the Madonna and
Child and the Passion.
Influenced,
especially in his early work, by Raphael Sanzio and the Lombard
school of Leonardo, he was called by his contemporaries "The
Divine Morales", because of his skill and the shocking realism
of his paintings, and because of the spirituality transmitted by all
his work.
His
work has been divided by critics into two periods, an early stage
under the influence of Florentine artists such as Michelangelo and a
more intense, more anatomically correct later period similar to
German.
Alonso Sánchez Coello.
Alonso
Sánchez Coello (Portuguese: Alonso Sanches Coelho 1531 – 8 August
1588) was a Spanish portrait painter, of Portuguese origin, of the
Spanish Renaissance and one of the pioneers of the great tradition of
Spanish portrait painting.
Alonso
Sánchez Coello was born in Benifairó de les Valls, near Valencia,
and spent his childhood there, until the death of his father when he
was around ten years old. He was educated in Portugal at his
grandfather's home. Coello's years in Portugal and his family name of
Portuguese origin (Coelho) led to a long-standing belief that he was
in fact Portuguese. His grandfather (after whom he was named) was in
the service of King John III of Portugal who sent the young painter
to study with Anthonis Mor (also known as Antonio Moro) in Flanders
around 1550. He was under the service of Antoine de Granville, bishop
of Arras, learning from Mor. While studying in Flanders, Coello also
spent time copying some of Titian's works.
Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Andrés López Polanco
Andrés López Polanco with his large
picture of King Philip II showed himself to be a follower-up of sixteenth
century Court portraiture, but he possessed certain characteristic of his own.
First he painted for Juan Hurtado de Valesco, later for the Habsburgs but only
as a copyist. Max Dvořák considered his portraiture a further stage in the
development of Spanish Court art, an immediate pattern for Velázquez.
The figure of the King, given in a vague
architectonic setting, with strong side lighting, is effective as a striking
silhouette, and all interest is focused on the face. It rises out of a white
collar which contrasts with the dark background._-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) |
Andrés López: Philip III;
oil on canvas
|
Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (1554-1608)
The involved question of attribution
becomes further complicated the moment when Sánchez’s pupil and follower Juan
Pantoja de la Cruz appeared on the scene. He was likewise Court Artist to
Philip II and Philip III. Pantoja worked for the Villahermosa family, as shown
by the Portrait of María Luisa de Aragón. This picture represents a seven-year
old girl dressed in mourning. Her father died in the royal prison that year
before. The painting shows how Mannerist trends were gaining an upper hand in
that of Pantoja de la Cruz. Pantoja painted his portraits with a finely graded
colour scale as if seen from very close up, and certain aspects are shown from
different angels of view. This created a special type of portrait known as the
“genre of the Habsburg dynasty”. The Mannerist conception of the figures and
objects often contrast surprisingly – the face became an increasingly stressed
feature and in the course of development became the dominant aspect of Spanish
portraiture.
Both Sánchez and Pantoja presented their
monarchs and aristocrats without any idealization and thus established a
tradition followed up by Velázquez, the entire Baroque school and later Goya.
Their portraits fulfilled all demands made by their Spanish clients, who in
their portraits wished to see the embodiment of seriousness (gravedad), majesty
(majestad) and honour (honra). |
Juan Pantoja de la Cruz:
María Luisa de Aragón; oil on canvas
|
Alonso Sánchez Coello (1531/32-1588)
Alonso Sánchez Coello was identical
to Antonio Moro in his realistic and physiological grasp of the model by as a
paintor he greatly surpassed him. He acquired the skill of painting in Portugal
and continued his training under Antonio Moro in Flanders. He was sent there by
John III, King of Portugal, whom Sánchez Coello portrayed. He worked at the
Spanish Court at Valladolid. He kept a large studio and educated many pupils,
whose share, often anonymous, makes it difficult today to distinguish and
attribute Sánchez’s own works. As portraitist he possessed outstanding talent. His
figures have natural postures standing at ease and are indicative of the social
importance of the person depicted. His compositions are already influenced by
advancing Mannerism. With his sense for psychological and convincing truthfulness
of depiction Alonso Sánchez Coello showed himself an outstanding artist, in
whose work the figures at the Court of Spain still live after all these
centuries.
An example of Sánchez’s culminating
style in portraiture is the portrait of Archduke Wenceslas (1577). The figure
is set in an architectonically designed interior, standing by a chair. The duke
stands out against the background as an open silhouette (his typical feature of
portraits of men). Scattered light, the thin paint, and the characteristic
smooth brushwork, the barely distinguishable strokes of the brush, it all makes
it possible for this portrait to be used in attributing other works by Sánchez.
All these features appear in the
portrait of María Maxmiliana of Pernstein with her little daughter. The
composition is worked out in the form of a triangle (a feature of all Sánchez’s
portraits of women). The painter
suppressed all spatial effect and bodily outlines of the figures. The picture
is divided into contrasting patches of colour and again he used fine scattered
light.
The portrait of Queen Anne roused
certain doubts in attribution, however used to be ascribed to Pantoja de la Cruz.
The starting point for the composition is the standing figure in which the
triangular composition reappears, based on one of Moro’s portraits of the year
1570 and Sánchez’s portrait of 1571 (both in Vienna
today). The Vienna ones show the Queen at the age of about twenty, while
on the Roudnice painting she is close to
twenty-five. Very similar to our portrait is the portrait of the Queen in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid, by Sánchez Coello.
Apart from minor details the two are identical in age, posture, expression and
technical aspects. X-Ray photos of the Roudnice picture
show that here we have the same conception and treatment as on the portrait of
Archduke Wenceslas by Sánchez Coello. Also only Sánchez would have been able to
paint the Queen from model while Pantoja could have done so only from a copy
(from his work is not known until nineties).
The Portrait of García Hurtado de
Mendoza is one of the best works of world portraiture in view of its high
artistic quality and magnificent portrayal. The painting is attributed to
Sánchez Coello. It differs in style from his representative portraits and the
attribution roused suspicions. This small-sized portrait showing only the bust
is identical with the few surviving intimate portraits by the artist, in which
the painter used other means than in his representative pictures. The face
shows less tension, the expression is more direct, more lively. García Hurtado
de Mendoza was Marquis of Cañete, Viceroy of Peru and Governor of Chile, the
hero of the Ercilla’s epos La Araucana. His life story told by Cristóbal Suárez
de Figueroa in 1613 survives in the former Lobkovic
Library.
The miniature bust of Philip II on a
small round panel can be ascribed to the Circle of Sánchez Coello rather than
to the artist himself. It depicts the King in armour after the victorious
battle at Saint Quentin (1557). There are surviving three replicas attributed
to Antonio Moro and Alonso Sánchez. Unfortunately, none of Sánchez’s miniatures
mentioned in older literature have survived. The softness of modelling, the
fine colours, the strength of expression and the loose brushwork speak in
favour of attribution to his close circle.
The borderline between the work of Sánchez and
Pantoja is formed by a pair of portraits of Fernando de Aragón y Gurea and
Juana of Pernstein. They are usually ascribed to Juan Pantoja de la Cruz but
always with some reservation and uncertainty. The picture of Fernando shows a
masterly use of the tonal harmonies of grey, complemented by a few shades of
golden ornaments and the restrained red of the ostrich feather. In the setting
of the figures in architecturally barely defined space, in the details and
posture the picture of Fernando is particularly close to that of his father
Martín de Aragón and other members of his family in the collection of the Duke
of Villahermosa at Pedrola made by Rolam
de Mois. He was close to Sánchez as well as a painter as a person. This
Flemish origin painter was very popular artist. It war related of him that “at
the time there was not a single outstanding personality who did not have his
portrait painted by him”. So far, however, his work and personality has not
been known sufficiently for it to distinguish his work and to attribute other
portraits to him. |
Alonso Sánchez Coello:
María Maxmiliana Manrique de Lara with
her daughter Polyxena; oil on canvas
|
 |
Alonso Sánchez Coello:
Anne, queen of Spain; oil on canvas
|
 |
Alonso Sánchez Coello: Polyxena of Lobkovic; oil on canvas
|
 |
Alonso Sánchez Coello:
Archduke Wenceslas; oil on canvas
|
 |
| Alonso Sánchez Coello: Archduke Rudolph II (later Emperor Rudolph II); oil on canvas |
 |
Copy after Alonso Sánchez
Coello: Archduke Albert; oil on canvas
|
Anthonis Mor (1517-1577)
Antonio Moro: Portrait of a member of the Mendoza family; oil on wood
SPANISH POTRAITS in the Czech lands
The collection of portraits forms an important
part of the Pernstein gallery. Their family gallery contains primarily
important personalities of the Spanish world. Polyxena’s Spanish inventory
cites two portraits of Philip II and Philip III as Infante and as King, the
Queen-Mother María. Don Carlos, Queen Anne, the wife of Philip II, Archdukes
Rudolph, Wenceslas and Albert. It’s interesting that the portraits of Spanish
royalty are not copies but mostly originals or at least good quality replicas
by leading Court painters, mainly Alonso Sanchéz Coella himself. His portrait
of Archduke Wenceslas appears in the Collection both as original as copy, also
included in Polyxena’s inventory. The portraits of French royalty (Queen
Elizabeth, Henry II and Henry II of Valois) were painted for the Pernsteins by
Spanish copyists.
The portraits of other important
Spanish personalities, almost all related to the Manrique de Lara y Mendoza
family, include those of the Grand Commander Luis de Requesens, Charles V’s
famous general. An unknown member of the Mendoza family is depicted on a
portrait by Anthonis Mor. We can even find the Viceroy of Peru and
Governor-General of Chile García de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete and a portrait
of the conqueror of Mexico Hernán Cortés (related to the Mendoza family), also
María Maxmiliana’s father García and her brothers Juan and Jorge.
In the Lobkovic gallery we can find
some portraits of Spanish envoys working in Prague (close friends or relatives
of María Maxmiliana). One of the surviving is the picture of Juan de Borja,
Guillermo de San Clemente, Baltazar de Zúñiga or the portrait of Francisco
Hurtado de Mendoza. The portrait of Zúñiga’s wife is included in Polyxena’s
inventory but has not survived.
In Spain, after the middle of the
sixteenth century, the influence of the Netherlandish artist Anthonis Mor
became merged with that of Titian and with traces of the contemporary
Portuguese portrait painting and this led to a great development of the School of
Portraiture at the Court of Spain. In its definite form, which it was given by
Sanchéz Coello and Pantoja de la Cruz, Spanish portraiture than spread across
the whole of Europe in the second half of the century and influenced
portraiture practically everywhere.
 |
|
Rolam de Mois: Juana of
Pernstein de Aragón; oil on canvas
|
 |
Rolam de Mois: Juan of Pernstein at the age of 16; oil on
canvas
|
Sunday, 17 February 2013
SPANISH PORTRAITS - history
The art gallery at the chatteau at
Routnice presents a picture of a relatively long period in the history not only
of Bohemia but Europe .
It moreover forms a chronological serie. Such a these chateaux are witness to
the life of and the influences upon the Bohemian nobility from the early XVI
century on. The pictures located in there have an exceptionally high artistic
quality. The collection grew up by stages from the early XVI century on, when 3
galleries, those at Rožmberk, Pernštejn and the Lobkovic gallery, were merged.
Among the total number of a thousand pictures in the collection today there are
some five hundred portraits and those made by leading Spanish Court Spain
How
did this little island
of Spanish Bohemia
The
year 1548 marks an important point in Czech-Spanish relations, for in that year
a retinue of Czech aristocrats formed part of the progress of Archduke
Maximilian to Spain Spain Vienna
the bride’s suite included María Maximiliana de Lara y Mendoza
Later
Vratislav of Pernštejn (Chancellor of the Kingdom of Bohemia Czech.
The
Pernštejn house became one of the most important links between Czech and
Spanish cultural life. María Maximiliana ran her entire household to Spanish
customs and traditions. They spoke and wrote in Spanish, their portraits were
painted by Spanish painters of renown.
Her
son Juan wrote only in Spanish, though he could speak both Czech and German.
The Spanish Ambasador mentioned in 1591 that everybody considered him as
Spaniard. Furthermore, in 1587 he married his cousin of the Manrique de Lara
family who owned an estate in Moravian Tovačov, and their son Vratislav
Eusebius lived on an endowment from Spain Spain Madrid Italy and
Francisca became Lady-in Waiting to the French Queen Isabella of Austria
The
entire reign of Rudolph II shows the growing influence of Spain Spain Prague
He
Spanish Ambasador to Prague
The
center of social and political life of the “Spanish” party was the Pernštejn Palace
When
in 1627 Polyxena handed Litomyšl over to her nephew Vratislav of Pernštejn, she
laid down the condition, that she should be entitled to the pictures in the in
the Pernstein family gallery. Polyxena made out a hand-written list of the
pictures in Spanish. Later she had a Czech inventory drawn up. The inventories
cannot have been complete and probably contained only the most important
portraits. During the restorations of the pictures, carried out by painter
Sternenfeld, he marked the number of paintings as damaged or very badly
damaged. Unfortunately he over painted them with a very heavy hand.
As
in other contemporary picture galleries of the aristocracy the collection of
portraits forms an important part of the Pernstejn gallery. While in the family
gallery of the Protestant Charles the Elder of Žerotín attention was paid to
portraits of important French personalities, monarchs…, while the collections
of the Catholic squires of Hradec concentrated on portraits of Bohemian kings,
the Pernštejn family gallery contains important personalities of the Spanish
world. It is interesting that the portraits of Spanish royalty are not copies.
They are mostly originals or at least good quality replicas by Alonso Sanchéz
Coello.
The
attention of Czech and foreign art historians has for a long time been centered
on the unique collection of Spanish portraits at Roudnice. Originally
archieve-keeper Josef Dvořák set out to prove the alleged authorship of the
portraits. He applied a genealogical viewpoint. His grandson Max Dvořák pointed
out the fact that Sanchéz and Pantoja left a basic mark upon Velázquez. In
Spain, after the middle of the XVI century, the influence of the Netherlandish
artist Anthonis Mor became merged with that of Titian and with traces of
contemporary Portuguese portrait painting and his led to a great development of
the School of Portraiture at the Court of Spain.
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