Counter-Reformation Art: Fighting Back With Brushes (1600s)

Europe was torn in two by the Protestant Reformation. For 100 years, Catholics and Protestants bashed Bibles in what has been called the first “world war.” The Catholic Church also waged a propaganda campaign (the Counter-Reformation) to bolster the faith of the confused, weary masses. Art was part of that campaign. Pretty pictures brought abstract doctrines to the level of the common man.
Cano — St. Bernard and the Virgin (San Bernardo y la Virgen)

Here’s a heavenly vision brought right down to earth. St. Bernard is literally enjoying the “milk of paradise,” a vision he had of being suckled on the heavenly teat of Mary. When God’s word was portrayed in this realistic way, the common folk lapped it up.

* In Room 18a…

Zurbarán — St. Peter Crucified Appearing to Peter Nolasco (Aparición de San Pedro a San Pedro Nolasco)

Zurbarán is like a bitter jolt of café solo. In Spain, miracles are real. When legends tell of a saint who was beheaded but didn’t die, that isn’t an allegory on eternal life to the Spanish — they picture a real man walking around with his head under his arm.

So, when Zurbarán paints a mystical vision, he gives it to us in photographic realism. Bam, there’s the Apostle Peter crucified upside down right in front of us. Nolasco looks as shocked as we are at the reality of the vision. This is “People’s Art” of the Counter-Reformation, religious art for the masses. (Zurbarán has the sort of literal-minded religion that makes people wonder things like, “When the Rapture comes, what if I’m sitting on the toilet?”)

* Return to the long gallery. Within the gallery, in section 28 (roughly between the lozenge-shaped room and the far end of the gallery), look for…

Murillo — The Immaculate Conception (La Inmaculada “de El Escorial”)

For centuries, the No. 1 deity in the Christian “pantheon” was the goddess Mary. This painting is a religious treatise, explaining a Catholic doctrine that many found difficult to comprehend. The Immaculate Conception of Mary meant that, though all humans are stained by the original sin of Adam, the mother of Jesus was conceived and born pure.

The Spanish have always loved the Virgin. She’s practically a cult figure. Common people pray directly to her for help in troubled times. Murillo (pron: mur-REE-oh) painted a beautiful, floating, and Ivory-Soap-pure woman — the most “immaculate” virgin imaginable — radiating youth and wholesome goodness.

* Go to far end of gallery and enter the round room (#32).

Goya (1746-1828)

Francisco de Goya, a true individual in both his life and his painting style, is hard to pigeonhole, his personality and talents were so varied. We’ll see several different facets of this rough-cut man — cheery apprentice painter, loyal court painter, political rebel, scandal-maker, disillusioned genius. His work runs the gamut, from pretty Rococo to political rabble-rousing to Romantic nightmares.

For convenience, let’s divide Goya’s life into three stages: the Court Painter (including his early years), Political Rebel, and Dark Stage.
Goya: Court Painter
Goya — The Family of Charles IV (La Familia de Carlos IV)

They’re decked out in all their finest, wearing every medal, jewel, and ribbon they could find for this impressive group portrait. Goya, the budding political liberal, captures all the splendor of the court in 1800, but with a brutal twist of reality. King Charles, with his ridiculous hairdo and silly smile, is portrayed for what he was — a vacuous, good-natured fool, a henpecked husband controlled by a domineering queen. She, the true center of the composition, is proud and defiant. The queen was vain about the supposed beauty of her long, swan-like neck, and here she stretches to display every centimeter of it. The other adults, with their bland faces, are bug-eyed with stupidity. Catch the crone looking out at us bird-like, fourth from left. The look in their eyes seems to say “I can’t wait to get this monkey-suit off.” (I picture Goya deliberately taking his own sweet time making them stand and smile for hours on end.) Underneath the royal trappings, Goya shows us the inner personality — or lack thereof — of these shallow monarchs.

As a tribute to Velázquez’ Maids of Honor, Goya painted himself painting the scene at far left. But here Goya stands back in the shadows looking with disdain on the group. Only the children escape Goya’s critical eye, painted with the sympathy he always showed to those lower on the social ladder.

* Let’s look at Goya’s early years. Facing the above painting, exit the round room to the left, then turn right down the hall. Go up the stairs to Rooms 90-94.

Goya’s Early Years

Born in a small town, Goya, unlike Velázquez, was a far cry from a precocious painter destined for success. In his youth he dabbled as a matador, kicking around Spain before finally landing a job in the Royal Tapestry. The canvases in these rooms were designs made into tapestries bound for the walls of nobles’ palaces.

Browse through these rooms and watch lords and ladies of the 1700s with nothing better to do than play — toasting each other at a picnic, dancing with castanets, flying kites, playing paddleball, listening to a blind guitarist, walking on stilts, or playing Blind Man’s Bluff (in Room 93).

In Room 94, a more serious side of Goya’s emerges. His Two Cats Fighting (Gatos Riñendo) represents the two warring halves of a human soul, the dark and light sides, anger and fear locked in immortal combat, fighting for dominance of a man’s life. We’re entering the Age of Romanticism.

Notice — how do I say this? — how BAD the drawing is in some of these canvases, especially the early ones. However, in the few short years he worked in the tapestry department, Goya the inexperienced apprentice slowly developed into a good, if not great, draftsman. The Parasol (El Quitasol, in Room 85) was one of his first really good paintings, with a simple composition and subtle shadings of light. Goya worked steadily for the court for 25 years, dutifully cranking out portraits before finally becoming First Court Painter at age 53.

* Head to Room 89 (also on second floor).