Pinturas - History Lab

Íñigo López de Mendoza, 2nd Count of Tendilla and 1st Marquis of Mondejar

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000

Íñigo López de Mendoza stood out as a great ally of King Ferdinand the Catholic, being captain general of the Kingdom of Granada and participating directly in the War of Granada at the end of the 15th century. After the victory, he was appointed the first governor of Granada, a post he held until the end of his life, combining the coexistence of victors and vanquished with the affairs of running the city, such as administrative and economic matters.
The original work was kept in the former collection of the Duke of Osuna, although its track has been lost, but it appears constantly in the documentation. The copy made by Francisco Díaz Carreño between 1877 and 1878, which is in the collections of the Museo del Prado, is better known today.
Both the portrait itself and the meticulousness with which it complements the setting are outstanding pictorially. It shows the main figure in front of a window, with a grenade emphasising the importance of the conflict in Granada and with significant elements of military command such as the staff in his hand and the helmet resting on the window. Stylistically, Juan Bautista de Espinosa shows the strong portrait painting tradition of the late 16th century, marking out isolated figures and very precise lines in the drawing.

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Saint Agnes, by Francisco de Zurbarán

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000

Between 1598 and 1664 Francisco de Zurbarán produced a series of paintings of virgin saints and martyrs following his own pictorial model which, under an apparent simplicity and direct portrait intention, allows for numerous interpretations. While these depictions show the saints with the appearance of being immaculate, they are not enveloped in the symbolism typical of saints and martyrs, such as the ecstatic posture gazing towards heaven, nor are they set in a pure environment that would indicate the sacred environment to which they belong. Furthermore, as they are not completely static figures, they cannot be classified as religious icons either.
Another characteristic feature of the series to which Saint Agatha belongs (Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France) is that they are not narrative paintings, but only refer to the events of their protagonists through their attributes, such as in this case the fact that they hold their own severed breasts on a tray. Zurbarán distances the figures from their sacred representation by isolating them against a neutral background and shows them directly in front of the viewer.

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The plague of 1649 in Seville

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:12 +0000

During the Modern Age, numerous epidemics struck Spanish and European populations. The painting shown here, by an anonymous artist, depicts the plague in Seville in 1649. The work focuses on the Hospital de la Sangre and the Macarena Gate, a perspective of the area outside the city walls that shows the tragedy. The Junta de Salud (Board of Health) established this area as a place of transfer for care or a burial site, as was the Prado de San Sebastián or Triana. The painting also shows a procession on the left, while the central area is dominated by the transport of the sick. On the right is a greater concentration of corpses. Due to the high number of contagions and the high mortality rate, it is estimated that this outbreak of plague, the last and most virulent, claimed the lives of 60,000 people in Seville, almost 45% of the city’s population.

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The plague of 1679 in Antequera, Málaga

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:12 +0000

The plague, one of the greatest threats to public health, struck Antequera in 1679. After the strong impact it had on the city of Seville, reflected in an anonymous painting dated 1649, the city of Malaga followed the same fate. The painting, an anonymous oil painting dated 1723, depicts the religious nature of these episodes: the Virgin of the Rosary appears in the upper left-hand band as part of the religious programme. On the right is a rainbow, symbol of God’s mercy, above a pious procession. Below, the city, under a rain of arrows representing the plague, the action unfolds. The dead are piled into mass graves while objects and personal belongings are burnt. The living are assisted by doctors and surgeons, who perform precarious medicinal work for healing (bloodletting, draining buboes, gauzing with ointments or cauterising wounds with hot irons). In short, the author depicted the tragedy of the plague, its social implications and its connection with the religious mentality.

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Miscegenation in American society (I)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

This work, entitled “De chino cambujo e india, loba” (“Of Chinese Cambujo and Indian, Wolf”), depicts a family group consisting of a father, a mother and a son, identified by inscriptions that refer to their degree of miscegenation from indigenous, European and African ethnic origins. These representations are characteristic of a pictorial genre that developed in the Viceroyalty of New Spain throughout the 18th century. It is known as “caste painting” and is organised on the basis of series generally consisting of sixteen paintings in which the most common unions are arranged. As shown in this canvas, which belongs to a set dispersed among various collections, the clothing and adornment of the figures, the activity they perform and the setting in which the action takes place, act as fundamental elements in identifying the social status of those depicted. Miguel Cabrera, the author of this group, who signed and dated the last of the canvases in 1763, is the painter most widely recognised by his contemporaries and had a large number of disciples and followers who were often inspired by the master’s own models.

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Miscegenation in American society (II)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

This work, entitled “De español y mestiza, castiza” (“Of Spaniard and Mestiza, Caste”), is a representation of mixed-race or caste painting, and is one of the main sources of information on everyday life in the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the 18th century. These representations are characteristic of a pictorial genre that developed during this century, known as “caste painting”. This genre was usually organised in series of 16 scenes depicting family groups made up of different ethnic groups, in response to the Enlightenment’s desire to order and classify the social structure and to show a self-image of the socio-cultural diversity of New Spain. It is likely that these works were intended for a foreign audience. This particular canvas was painted by Miguel Cabrera in 1763, the painter most recognised by his contemporaries. It depicts a family of high social rank, as can be deduced from the clothing and ornaments worn by the figures, who are standing in front of a shoe shop.

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The money changer and his wife

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

In the new bourgeois societies, women were a fundamental support for their husbands in the task of collecting and accumulating money. They took part in the accounting of their husbands’ businesses and, in many cases, were in demand as accountants by merchant houses, accustomed as they were to the control of account books. Bourgeois women, without forgetting their role as mothers and wives, developed an economic-administrative activity acting on behalf of their husbands, but also when they were widowed or took over the inheritance of a prematurely deceased father. They handled rents and lent money in a historical phase in which money was an instrument for the accumulation of wealth.

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The 12th Marquise of Villafranca painting her husband

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

María Tomasa de Palafox, Marquise of Villafranca, received a careful education under the personal guidance of her mother, María Francisca de Sales Portocarreño, Countess of Montijo. The Countess was secretary for 18 years of the Junta de Damas de Honor y Mérito, an institution founded in 1775 within the framework of the Real Sociedad Económica Matritense, which was very actively involved in social reform programmes (such as the education of women and the improvement of women’s and inclusive prisons). María Tomasa continued her mother’s work and participated in the activities of the Sociedad Matritense, showing great interest in new pedagogical ideas and scientific development. Thus, they claimed women’s rights outside the discourse of excellence, which accepted equality as valid only for those women who were considered extraordinary for their qualities. However, the artistic, scientific and literary academies did not exclude women, but in practice, few were able to join them. The San Fernando Academy was one of the first to allow women to join, and in 1766 it had ten women painters and an honorary president, the Countess of Fuentes. The Academy frequently placed limits on women’s training in painting and they were not allowed to attend classes in life drawing or nudes, nor were they allowed to deviate from “feminine” subjects such as paintings of flowers or landscapes.

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The game of ball

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

Goya emphasised on the cardboard delivery invoice the large number of figures included, each occupying his exact position in the game (forward, centre-half and fullback), together with twenty-five other figures of different ages and attitudes. Pelota games, of French origin, spread throughout Spain with great success in the Basque Country, where even then every village had its own fronton. Goya depicted the specific moment of the game, when the ball, on the ground, has reached the chaza, the place where the ball stops before it reaches the winning line. The resulting tapestry hung in the dining room of the princes of Asturias (the future Charles IV and Maria Luisa of Parma).

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Camila Gonzaga, Countess of San Segundo and her children

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

Portraits of marriage and family are common in the Modern Age, allowing us to detect forms of relationship between husband and wife and family compositions. This portrait by Parmigianino depicts Camilla Gonzaga, married to the Count of San Secondo, emphasising her role as a mother. The iconography of the work depicts, apparently for the first time in Italy, a woman surrounded by her children in the manner of classical charity. Revealing is the hardness of the mother’s face, with a certain restrained smile, while the children approach the cord around her waist with their hands, considering it an element of security. She gives the impression that with one of them she wants to break the bonds of dependence, with another she seems to warn him of a possible withdrawal and only allows the youngest to cling to her. Her attitude, together with the direction of the children’s gaze, leaves a clear message: age forces a change in mother-child relationships and male life and promotion are associated with going out of the domestic space.

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