Those who know me are familiar with my ongoing musings about trips I would like to take to one exotic locale or the other …Mexico, Morocco, Kazakhstan…although those trips never even make it into the planning stages. For the past several years now I have been heard to mutter that I’d like to go to Spain and see the Prado before I die. Of course thus far I have made no plans.
I have successfully avoided Spain and the Prado all my life. Fifty years ago, when just new to New York, I had a friend from Colombia who was eager for me to learn all about Spanish culture and who never tired of extolling the virtues of Spanish Painting. Well, of course I knew even then that the great paintings were the Italian Renaissance paintings and so I assumed that he was merely chauvinistic. Yet, slowly, over the years I have come to discern a very great difference between Spanish and Italian painting and I have been surprised to realize that when it comes down to the wire, I think I actually do prefer the Spanish.
The minute I read that the Prado exhibition would be travelling to Houston, where friends had been inviting me to visit for almost twenty five years, I determined to go at once! Having seen this exhibition I can now report that the proposed trip to Spain is entering the planning stage.
My objection to Spanish Painting was almost always because Spanish painting was religious painting. That seemed understandable to me what with Spain being such a completely Catholic country. My opposition stemmed from the fact that I was not catholic, not a Christian, and not at all religious. Because commissioned by the crown, it was also royalist and if I have any politics they are extremely to the left of the lowest duke. Since then and absent my friend’s company I have discovered on my own that there is a great deal more to Spanish painting. And then there is Goya, who has given us some of the most profoundly moving paintings in the cannon of western art …Cinco de Mayo being a favorite, and three sets of etching that not even Picasso could better …and if you scroll through these commentaries you will discover how greatly I love Picasso.
As to why I have come to love Spanish painting and to prefer it over the Italian is, I believe, because of the palette …the color. Spanish painting is earthy, it is human, it is local color in which its earthiness is emphasized and it can be very warm when warm and very cold when cold. The color of Italian painting is wonderful …the crystal clear blues and the warm rose and the delicious flesh tones …but after fifty years I have become sated and it has begun to seem sometimes contrived …brilliance for the sake of brilliance. (For the same reason I have tired of the high chroma palette of modern art and have started giving preference to modern artists who work in local color.) Above everything I love color and in particular that which I can see in nature with my own eyes.
If I had any reticence about seeing this exhibition it was in thinking that with so many paintings in their storerooms it was possible the Prado would send over many of their not best works …perhaps really good works but not the best. I am happy to say that fear was laid to rest the moment we walked into the galleries. Greeting us at the first wall was the beautiful portrait of Isabel Clara Eugenia by Alonso Sanchez Coello rich in color and with carefully executed details of pattern on pattern all creating one of the most exquisite examples of the richness that is possible in the making of an oil painting.
I was especially pleased to see two of the early paintings made by Goya as patterns for tapestries…he conveys all the color and dynamic of the life of Spain. Every great painter creates in his works a sense of his own presence and of them all no one is more charismatic and so delightful to know as Goya.
Velasquez is always a presence as well and of his many superb paintings there is probably none that I would rather face than his portrait here of Mars, the tired, exhausted, naked warrior who has given his all and who is so world weary he can hardly raise his arm to support his head.
And, yes, there are the saints and the martyrs and the kings and dukes and ladies of the court. (I have included a link which lists all the works in their various categories.) There are many paintings by painters whose names are unknown to me. And there is still life and among the still lifes there are two by one of my very favorite painters, Luis Melendez. I am a direct descendent of Charles Wilson Peale and I have always had an affinity to the still life of his sons Rembrandt and Raphael Peale, or the uncles, as I call them. As good as they are Melendez is even better…in 1650 he created photorealism long before anyone had ever thought of inventing a camera, tromp l’oeil with a capitol T. Three years ago I went up to Boston just to see an exhibition of his work. It was magnificent. (See this blog March, 2010.)
All of these paintings whatever their category are absolutely engrossing…one’s attention never wavers or tires. This was so engrossing, in fact that I could not possibly describe to you the galleries in which these works are presented…the paintings command your attention, they dominate the rooms. I attended the exhibition with two friends who rarely go to museums: they were spellbound.
The exhibition is a history of two hundred years of Spanish painting. It closes with a portrait laid out but not completed by Sorolla, whose work I know well from the Hispanic Society in New York. As a rule I dislike his work but this one has a great freedom and energy. But just prior to his painting we see The Dementia of Juana of Castile, by Valles, an academic/historical painting of 1866 that was the kind of painting the fourteen year old Pablo Picasso produced in 1894 and with which he won prizes in the annual competitions. It is also the kind of painting against which he rebelled. So in addition to this being a history of Spanish painting, for those of us who love Picasso, it is also a survey of the influences upon young Pablo …. he was always a Spanish painter and these are his antecedents, these are his uncles. Not one of these paintings is his; but he is very much present.
Those who know me well also know that of the arts I like architecture, painting and drawing …drawings, not prints. I dislike prints. Here we are treated to twenty some etchings by Goya from the last three series he made. They are superb. I am always delighted when my prejudices are so easily converted!
This is one of those exhibitions which require timed tickets. We were there at one thirty and there were only about twenty five others in the many galleries. That is wonderful as far as I am concerned; there is nothing I like better than a private showing. But I would like to believe that this will become a hot ticket exhibition. This is a rare opportunity to see really great paintings. It truly deserves a large audience.
This exhibition came to be in Houston through the contacts Gary Tinterow had made during his twenty five years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When he learned that this was being sent to Queensland in Australia, apparently he got on the phones and shepherded it here where he is now the Museum Director. (See the link below.) This will be followed by Picasso Black and White which I saw a few months ago at the Guggenheim …scroll down for my comments. In the coming years the people of Houston are in for some great experiences in the arts through the efforts of Mr. Tinterow. I hope he will be supported and appreciated.
The video produced by the Houston Museum:
The list of the works in the exhibition. Click on the titles to see the works. Not all of them are shown:
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