Velázquez y Goya en su contexto artístico

INTRODUCCIÓN

• Diego de Silva y Velázquez is recognized as a genius of universal painting.
• His position as painter of the chamber of Felipe IV allowed him to study the great masters and develop a personal style.
• Velázquez's work belongs to the Baroque, considered the Golden Age of Spanish painting.
• He stood out among artists like Zurbarán, Ribera, and Murillo.
• His works include Las meninas, La Venus del espejo, and Las hilanderas.
• Francisco de Goya y Lucientes is another genius of universal painting.
• Goya lived in a period without prominent artists but followed a singular artistic path.
• He anticipated many "isms" of contemporary art, emphasizing color over line.
• Important works include La familia de Carlos IV, La maja vestida, and Los fusilamientos del 3 de mayo.
• This lecture will cover the production and pictorial evolution of these two significant figures in art history within their historical context.
• Their importance lies in their indelible mark on the history of painting.

LA ESPAÑA DEL SIGLO DE ORO: VELÁZQUEZ, DEL REALISMO ANALÍTICO AL REALISMO IDEALIZADO

LA ESPAÑA DEL SIGLO DE ORO

• The socio-political context of 17th-century Spain shaped its artistic evolution, diverging from the rest of Europe.
• Spanish Baroque expressed the Catholic Counter-Reformation and the economic, social, and political crisis of Spain.
• This led to two opposing aesthetic attitudes: a pessimistic view and escapism into fantasy.
• Painting was the most notable manifestation of the Spanish Baroque, reaching high levels of perfection.
• The Golden Age of Spanish painting featured artists like Ribalta, Ribera, Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán.
• The primary subject matter was religious, commissioned mainly by the Church and the monarchy, with portraits being common.
• Genres like still life (bodegón) and costumbrista scenes were less common.
• Velázquez had greater thematic freedom due to his court position and travels to Italy.
• The first half of the 17th century saw a "balanced" naturalism, addressing unpleasant subjects philosophically.
  • Francisco Ribalta (1565-1628) in Valencia painted San Francisco confortado por un ángel músico.
  • José de Ribera (1591-1652), from Valencia, moved to Rome and Naples; his work was influenced by Caravaggio's tenebrist naturalism, seen in El martirio de San Felipe.
  • Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) in Seville was a naturalist painter of religious works and still lifes, such as Aparición de San Pedro a San Pedro Nolasco.
  • Alonso Cano (1601-1667), also from Seville, had a more classicist style, exemplified by La visión de Jerusalén del convento de Santa Paula.
  • Velázquez is the most important figure in 17th-century Spanish painting, known for works like Las meninas, La rendición de Breda, Las hilanderas, and El triunfo de Baco.
  • His art reflects his time, maintaining an attitude of detachment, observing reality as a contemplative philosopher.
• The second half of the 17th century saw more dynamic and colorful painting due to Flemish influence from Rubens (1577-1649) and Van Dyck (1599-1641).
  • Antonio de Pereda (1611-1678) in Madrid created Vanitas, a special type of still life with clocks, withered flowers, broken books, skulls, etc.
  • Court painters Juan Carreño de Miranda (1614-1685) and Claudio Coello (1642-1693) continued Velázquez's work, influenced by Van Dyck's aristocratic portraiture.
  • Claudio Coello and Francisco Rizi (1614-1685) were leading figures in Spanish decorative Baroque.
  • Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1618-1682) in Seville was known for color, classicism, grace, and delicacy, as seen in La vieja y el niño and La Virgen con el Niño.
  • Juan Valdés Leal (1622-1690) in Seville, a violent personality, depicted macabre themes like Finis Gloriae Mundi.

CARACTERÍSTICAS Y ESTILO DE DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ

• Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) was born in Seville during its economic and cultural peak.
• In 1611, he apprenticed under Francisco Pacheco (1564-1644), a cultured and influential figure who taught him composition and iconography.
• After completing his training, Velázquez opened his own workshop and became court painter under Felipe IV (reign 1621-1665).
• This position gave him creative freedom, allowing him to produce art for art's sake.
• Velázquez's painting is part of the Baroque movement.
  • His compositions have a tension of forces, guiding the viewer's eye across the canvas.
  • Unlike typical Baroque art, his compositions are more balanced and serene.
  • His paintings express the sentiments of the portrayed individuals.
  • His works are highly realistic, with portraits revealing the psychological personality of the subjects.
  • Light is essential, conceived as a fusion of black and white, adding volume, realism, and theatricality through chiaroscuro.
  • Color predominates over line.
  • He achieves spatial representation through aerial perspective, degrading objects in size and sharpness, creating sfumato to capture the "atmosphere."
• His work shows the influence of his teachers and contemporary Seville painters like Juan de Roelas (1570-1625).
• Major influences came from Italian masters such as Miguel Ángel (1475-1564), Veronés (1528-1588), and Tiziano (1488-1576), whose works he studied in Italy.
• He was also influenced by El Greco (1541-1614), Durero (1471-1528), and Ribera (1591-1652), whose works were in the royal collections he accessed.
• His pictorial production is deep, with many corrections visible (pentimenti).
• Thematically, he covered all Baroque themes, including mythological and female nudes censored in Counter-Reformation Spain.
• Velázquez greatly influenced artists in the second half of the 17th century, leading to a Madrid school of painting during the reign of Carlos II, with painters like Juan Carreño, Francisco Rizi, Francisco Herrera el Mozo (1627-1685), and Claudio Coello.

PRODUCCIÓN PICTÓRICA Y EVOLUCIÓN ARTÍSTICA

Etapa sevillana (inicios-1623)

• His early works show an analytical realism with subtle tenebrism and technical virtuosity in representing reality.
• Objects are well-drawn, showing plasticity and rich qualities; ochre and wood tones predominate.
• Compositions are sometimes ambiguous.
• He mainly painted everyday scenes, still lifes, portraits, and religious subjects.
• Everyday and still life works show originality and a somber content, reflecting the painter's feelings about poverty.
  • El aguador de Sevilla showcases the study of object quality, a prime example of analytical realism.
  • Other works include Dos jóvenes a la mesa, La vieja friendo huevos, and Los tres músicos.
• Between still life and religious paintings is Cristo en casa de Marta y María, combining an anecdotal theme with a complex one.
• La mulata represents the Supper at Emmaus.
• Religious paintings include landscapes, as seen in La Inmaculada Concepción, with an iconographic type of purple tunic and blue mantle influenced by Francisco Pacheco.
• La adoración de los Magos can be considered a family portrait, with his wife as the Virgin, his daughter Francisca as the child Jesus, Francisco Pacheco as Melchor, Velázquez himself as Gaspar, and a relative or servant as Baltasar.
• Portraits include Don Luis de Góngora y Argote (1622) and Sor Jerónima de la Fuente.

Primera etapa madrileña (1623-1629)

• In 1622, Velázquez made his first trip to Madrid, studying the royal painting collections at the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
• The influences of European and Spanish painters became evident in his works, without abandoning realism.
• In 1623, he settled in Madrid after being called by the Conde Duque de Olivares (1587-1645) and appointed court painter, which brought administrative duties.
• He primarily worked as a portraitist but also created historical and mythological paintings.
• In the first Madrid period, wood tones gave way to pinkish, whitish, and grayish tones, known as the gray period.
• Portraits followed the tradition of Tiziano and Antonio Moro (1519-1576), with the figure highlighted against the background.
• He painted portraits of the Conde Duque de Olivares, Felipe IV, and Infante Don Carlos, though not all are preserved.
• In 1627, he began historical and mythological paintings, influenced by the monarch's private collections and Rubens' presence in Madrid in 1628.
• Notable is Los borrachos or El triunfo de Baco, contrasting mythological themes with a vulgar treatment, showcasing naturalistic Baroque influences.

Primer viaje a Italia (1629-1630)

• Rubens advised Velázquez to go to Italy to gain new knowledge.
• From mid-1629, Velázquez visited Milan, Padua, Venice, and Rome.
• His palette transformed, with dark tones disappearing in favor of a Venetian palette; brushwork became more fluid.
• His themes expanded, showing interest in nudes and landscapes.
• Analytical realism evolved into idealized realism, and Velázquez developed the ability to paint air using aerial perspective.
• During this trip, he painted La fragua de Vulcano, depicting a mythological scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses, with a classical Apollo figure contrasted with popular-inspired blacksmiths.
• He also painted portraits, including María de Hungría, and a religious work, La túnica de José.
• He possibly painted small landscape canvases of the Vista del jardín de la villa Médicis, subtitled El mediodía and La tarde, prefiguring Impressionism.

Segunda etapa madrileña (1631-1649)

• This period occurred between his return to the Court in 1631 and his second trip to Italy in 1649.
• Velázquez painted religious paintings, portraits, and historical and mythological paintings.
• His Italian experiences were evident in lighter brushwork, richer colors, and compositions.
• From 1644, he showed impressionistic traits with an absolute predominance of color.
• He showed a deep interest in landscape.
• Religious paintings include Las tentaciones de Santo Tomás de Aquino, with clear and vivid colors.
• His Cristo crucificado transmits serenity with a light from the upper-left corner illuminating the pale body.
• San Antonio y San Pablo, primer ermitaño was intended for the gardens of the Buen Retiro palace, inspired by Joachím Patinir (1480-1524).
• La Coronación de la Virgen combines El Greco's spiritual model with the naturalness of the characters.
• Portraits were illuminated by silver light, reflecting the influence of El Greco and Veronés.
• Portraits were made for the salón de los reinos of the Buen Retiro palace, such as Felipe III a caballo, Margarita de Austria a caballo, and several of Príncipe Baltasar Carlos.
• The most important is the portrait of Conde Duque de Olivares a caballo, possibly Velázquez's most Baroque painting.
• Also from this period are hunting scenes, combining landscape and portrait.
• The key work of this period is Las lanzas or Rendición de Breda, depicting the surrender of the Dutch city in 1625.
• The center of the composition is the key, with Ambrosio de Spínola's Spanish soldiers and Justino de Nassau's Dutch soldiers.
• A mythological painting from this period is Marte, influenced by Miguel Ángel and Rubens.
• This stage also featured the series of bufones (court jesters), psychological portraits of these characters, including Juan Calabazas, El niño de Vallecas, and El bufón el Primo.

Segundo viaje a Italia (1649-1651)

• In late November 1648, the painter made another trip to Italy by order of Felipe IV to buy paintings and statues.
• In 1650, he stayed in Rome, painting the portrait of Inocencio X, considered by many to be Velázquez's best portrait.
• Also of note is the portrait of Juan de Pareja, his mulatto servant and slave, possessing inner strength.

Últimos años (1651-1660)

• The paintings and sculptures from Italy pleased Felipe IV, who appointed Velázquez as aposentador mayor de palacio.
• In 1656, he painted his masterpiece, Las meninas (also known as La familia de Felipe IV).
• The painting is interpreted as a tribute to the profession of painting and an analysis of reality.
• Other mythological paintings include La Venus del espejo and Las hilanderas.
• In 1660, Velázquez organized the ceremony of the infanta María Teresa de Austria to Luis XIV, sealing the Peace of the Pyrenees.
• Upon returning to Madrid, he died that same year.

EL CAMBIO DE GUSTO Y LAS REFORMAS BORBÓNICAS. PALACIOS REALES. DE LA ESTÉTICA ROCOCÓ A LA EXALTACIÓN ROMÁNTICA

• After the death of Carlos II (reign 1665-1700) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1714), the Bourbons came to power in Spain.
• The Bourbons' political and socioeconomic transformations allowed for a recovery, becoming a satellite state of France.
• The change in dynasty was a major factor in the influx of foreign artistic currents, shifting tastes in Spanish arts.
• Felipe V (reign 1700-1746) was the first Spanish Bourbon, influenced by Italian classicism and French luxury.
• Artists brought classicist French and Italian Baroque styles to Spain.
• The palace of la Granja, designed by Teodoro Ardemans (1661-1726) in 1721, and the Palacio Real de Madrid, designed by Juvara in 1735 are examples of this new style.
• After Juvara's death, Juan Bautista Sacchetti (1690-1764) presented a more modest project in 1736, which was executed.
• French Baroque evolved into rococo, characterized by extreme ornamentation.
• Rococo spread from France to other European courts, including Spain, decorating palace interiors.
• The spirit of rococo was expressed in the decorative painting of ceilings in churches and palaces.
• The kings of the new dynasty initiated arts through the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, founded in 1752.
• The process of introducing neoclassical currents in Spain involved analysis of classicism, interest in archeology, criticism of tradition, and rejection of the late Baroque.
• Ventura Rodríguez (1717-1785) and Juan de Villanueva (1739-1811) were the main representatives of this trend in architecture.
• Francesco Sabatini (1721-1797) designed the Puerta de Alcalá.
• The regeneration of Spanish painting occurred with the arrival of Rafael Mengs (1728-1779), who exerted an artistic dictatorship from the Academia.
• Many painters worked as cartoonists for the Real Fábrica de Tapices that Mengs directed, such as the Bayeu brothers, José del Castillo (1737-1793), and Francisco de Goya.
• After the War of Independence (1808-1814), neoclassical currents progressively shifted towards romanticism.
• Romanticism, arising in the first half of the 19th century in opposition to classicism, emphasized sentiments and artistic freedom.
• In Spain, romanticism was important in portraiture, costumbrismo, and landscape painting.
• Francisco de Goya was a leading figure for a generation of painters.

GOYA Y LOS INICIOS DE LA PINTURA CONTEMPORÁNEA

GOYA Y SU ÉPOCA

• Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was born in Fuendetodos (Zaragoza), the son of a decorator artisan.
• He studied in Zaragoza with José Luzán (1710-1785).
• At 17, he moved to Madrid, seeking to expand his painting studies and obtain a scholarship to Italy.
• In 1771, he returned to Zaragoza and was commissioned to paint a dome in the Basilica del Pilar.
• In 1775, he moved to Madrid, having married Josefa Bayeu, sister of Francisco Bayeu (1734-1795).
• Through Ramón Bayeu, he began making cartoons for the Real Fábrica de Tapices.
• His fame gained him royal favor, becoming a painter for Carlos III (reign 1759-1788) and Carlos IV (reign 1788-1808).
• Between 1792-1793, he suffered an illness that left him deaf, which altered his character and painting, shifting from pleasant life representations to a bitter critique of the world.
• After the War of Independence, he continued as painter for Fernando VII (reign 1808/1814-1833).
• In 1823, he moved to Bordeaux after the arrival of the Cien Mil Hijos de San Luis, where he continued painting until his death in 1828.
• His life and work occupy a privileged place in art history.
• His biography was marked by 19th century Spain and intensive pictorial activity make him a figure in universal painting.
• His production is unique in its diversity of themes and techniques (oils, drawings, and engravings), the marked evolution of his style, and his sensitivity to historical events.
• Goya witnessed the profound changes in the society of his time, developing most of his work in a society determined by the Ancien Régime.
• He experienced the French Revolution and the War of Independence.
• His contact with intellectuals such as Jovellanos (1744-1811), Iriarte (1750-1791), Meléndez Valdés (1754-1817), and Fernández de Moratín (1760-1828) exposed him to the ideas of the Enlightenment.
• His work reflects a connection between pure plastic aspects, concerns about existence, and historical events.
• His intellectual and ideological thoughts, personal transformation, experiences, and introverted character are evident.
• His art expressed the sensations and emotions generated by the world around him, leading to a committed and revolutionary art that changed the foundations of painting.
• His series Los caprichos and Los desastres de la guerra show this.
• His artistic production is defined by expressionism.
• He broke with academic principles, prioritizing color and expression over classicist constraints.

CARACTERÍSTICAS Y ESTILO

• Goya's painting is characterized as expressionistic, reflecting his tormented spirit.
• His work has surrealist traits, rejecting rationality and showing interest in the world of dreams, the subconscious, and the fantastic.
• His characters always show their feelings.
• Light is essential; color predominates over line.
• He reproduces movement well.
• His technique is fluid, with loose and rapid brushstrokes.
• His painting started in rococo and finished in romanticism.
• He used neoclassical composition procedures, such as geometric composition.
• The final works of Goya, characterized by an expression that overcomes any style conditioning, prove the coherence of a trajectory characterized by an untiring desire to experience new forms.
• Goya was a prolific painter with more than five hundred paintings and numerous drawings, engravings, and lithographs.
• Technically, he was a fresco painter, cartoonist, draftsman, lithographer, oil painter, and engraver.
• He handled various themes, such as costumbrista, portrait, religious, and war themes, and his own pinturas negras.
• His masters were Velázquez, Rembrandt, and nature.
• Goya is considered the master of almost all the painters of the 19th century.

EVOLUCIÓN DE SU OBRA

Pinturas de tema costumbrista

• Goya's first works contained hunting and fishing scenes.
• He represented verbenas and romerías, a friendly world where the people drink, dance, and have fun.
• The influences of rococo and English painters of the second half of the 18th century, though the light and landscape are under clear Velázquez influence.
• Most of the paintings in this genre are cartoons for tapestries from the Real Fábrica de Santa Bárbara, made between 1774-1792, including La gallina ciega, El quitasol, La pradera de San Isidro, and El cacharrero.

Retratos

• As a portraitist, Goya is sincere.
• His portraits seek to capture the personality of the individual and not the details.
• Maturity in portraiture was reached in the late 18th century.
• Royal portraits culminated with La familia de Carlos IV, an authentic psychological portrait of the lineage.
• Female and children's portraits were his favorites.
• Portraits made in his last stage in Bordeaux feature a different point of view in the application of color and brushstroke.

Pinturas de tema religioso

• Goya's temperament was not in consonance with religious paintings.
• In 1780, to take possession of a post as an academic of San Fernando, he painted a Cristo crucificado under clear inspiration from Velázquez.
• In 1784, he painted a series of scenes for the church of San Francisco el Grande, including La predicación de San Bernardino.
• At the end of the century, Goya portrayed scenes whose characters are in a dynamic setting.

Pinturas de tema bélico

• Goya dared to show the world as a profound tragedy, horror, chaos, and destruction.
• In 1814, he painted El dos de mayo and El tres de mayo.
• El tres de mayo is symbolic as the group of French represents the image of oppression whereas the patriots represents the symbol of freedom.

Pinturas negras

• Goya made the pinturas negras on the walls of his house – la Quinta del Sordo, in 1820.

Grabados, dibujos y litografías

• Goya was considered a great artist in his drawings and engravings.
• The drawings are grouped into albums, in which he criticises the Spanish royalty.
• The images which appears in Los Desastres de la Guerra are non-fictional.
• La Tauromaquia is a series of engravings that portrays dynamics.
• The series Los Toros de Burdeos features bullfights and popular festivals with tragic and expressionist styles.

CONCLUSIÓN

• Velázquez maintained a detached attitude, while Goya was a committed artist.
• Goya is considered a chronicler of his time, reflecting the convulsive historical period he lived through.
• His work anticipated contemporary painting and sowed the seeds of many artistic vanguards of the early 20th century, such as impressionism, surrealism, and expressionism.