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The Museo del
Prado is a museum and art gallery located in Madrid, the
capital of Spain. It features one of the world's finest
collections of European art, from the 12th century to
the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish
Royal Collection. |
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Spanish
Painters
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A number of great artists have lived
and worked in Spain. Among the most
famous are El Greco, Diego Velázquez,
Francisco Goya, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo
Picasso, one of the most prolific
artists in history and a major figure in
20th-century art.
16th
Century: El Greco (1541-1614)
It was during the reign of Philip II
that the first great genius of Spanish
painting, El
Greco, settled in the country. He
was born in Crete and worked in Italy
before moving to Toledo in about 1577.
His highly emotional style gave powerful
expression to the religious fervour of
his adopted country, but it was not to
Philip's taste. El Greco consequently
enjoyed little royal patronage, but he
produced a succession of magnificent
altarpieces for churches in Toledo.
In 1586 El Greco painted one of his
greatest masterpieces,
The Burial of
Count Orgaz, for the Church of Santo
Tomé in Toledo. This work, still in
place, portrays a 14th-century Toledan
nobleman laid in his grave (in actuality
situated just below the painting) by SS
Stephen and Augustine. Above, the
count's soul rises to a heaven densely
populated with angels, saints, and
contemporary political figures.
17th
Century: Diego Velázquez (1599-1660)
The artist probably most loved by the
Spanish people is
Velázquez
who painted religious pictures and also
occasional mythological scenes and
tavern scenes with a prominent
still-life element. He worked primarily
as a portraitist, and in this field he
was acknowledged as one of the greatest
artists the world has ever known.
His masterpiece, Las Meninas (The
Maids of Honour, 1656, Prado), is a
stunning group portrait of the royal
family and Velázquez himself in the act
of painting (photo top right of this
page).
18th
Century: Francisco Goya (1746-1828)
The greatest painter of his time in
Spain and also probably the most
powerful and original figure in the
visual arts in the whole of Europe was
Francisco
Goya. In his time he was best known
as a portraitist, but he is now equally
renowned for other types of work,
including the powerful engravings that
he made showing the atrocities of the
French occupation of Spain during the
Napoleonic Wars.
19th
Century: Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923)
Goya was an isolated genius and after
him there were no painters of European
standing in 19th-century Spanish art,
although there were some charming minor
masters, such as
Joaquin
Sorolla, whose work — influenced by
Impressionism — is characterized by
brilliant color and vigorous brushwork.
His distinct ability to depict the
effects of light comes across strongly
in many of his beach scenes of his
native Valencia.
20th
Century: Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
One of the most prolific
artists in history was
Pablo
Picasso who spent most of his life
in France but his work often used
imagery from his native country (the
bullfight was a favourite subject) and
his most famous painting—Guernica (1937,
Centro Cultural de la Reina Sofia,
Madrid)—was inspired by his revulsion at
the
bombing of the Basque town during
the Spanish Civil War.
Click to enlarge
 Joan
Miró (1893-1983)
Of the modern Spanish painters who
remained in Spain, the most illustrious
was Joan Miró.
He spent a good deal of time in Paris
but lived mainly in and around his
native Barcelona, and later on the
island of Majorca. An immensely prolific
and versatile artist, he created a
distinctive and witty style blending
Surrealism and abstraction.
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
A flamboyant painter and sometime
writer, sculptor and experimental
film-maker,
Salvador Dali was probably the
greatest Surrealist artist, using
bizarre dream imagery to create
unforgettable and unmistakable
landscapes of his inner world. His most
famous work is The Persistence Of
Memory.
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