More from the Baroque Era

After visiting the special exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art, I proceeded to a gallery with which I am very familiar.  It contains paintings by Baroque artists from Flanders and France... as well as a number of works by Spanish masters from the 1600s.  Back when I was teaching I used to do a unit on Spanish art in my advanced class, and we would go to the art museum on a field trip.  This gallery is where we would begin.

I was surprised to see a Spanish painting that I had never seen before, and I had never heard of the artist either.  I had to do a bit of research on him.  Juan van der Hamen y León was the son of a Flemish courtier in Madrid and a Spanish noblewomen.  He is best known for his still lifes.  This painting is called "Still Life with Sweets" and was done in 1622.  The sweets in the picture are "turrones", a typical Spanish treat made with nuts and honey.

 

José de Ribera did this painting of St. Jerome around 1640.  He spent most of his career in Naples which at that time was ruled by the Spanish.  The Italians often called him "Lo Spagnoletto"... the Little Spaniard.

Bartolomé Murilllo, a native of Seville, is best known for his paintings of the Virgin.  "The Immaculate Conception" was painted around 1680.

 This enormous canvas by Murillo portrays the Old Testament story of Laban searching for his stolen household gods.

Francisco de Zurbarán is sometimes called the Spanish Caravaggio because of his use of dramatic lighting.  This painting, entitled "Christ and the Virgin in the House of Nazareth", was done in 1640.  Mary watches sadly while the young Jesus pricks himself while weaving a crown of thorns... a premonition of his crucifixion.

Some would argue that the greatest of the painters of Spain's Golden Age was Diego Veláquez.  He served as the court painter to King Felipe IV.  In addition to portraits of the royal family, he also painted the mentally and physically handicapped who were kept for the court's amusement.  Velázquez portrayed them as human beings rather than oddities.  This is his painting of "The Jester Calabazas" done in 1681.  The jester holds a pinwheel in one hand and a miniature portrait of a lady in the other.

The museum also has two works by El Greco, the painter who was born in Greece but who spent most of his life painting his mystical, other-worldly paintings in Toledo, Spain.  For some reason they were not hanging here where they usually are.  I looked at the museum's website and saw that in 2019 they were traveling in a special exhibition in Paris and Chicago.  Perhaps they are being given a cleaning before they are returned to their usual spots.  Here are pictures of them which I took from the museum's on-line collection... "The Holy Family" and "The Crucifixion".

A recent acquisition of the museum is this mid-seventeenth century, wooden statue from Spain which portrays St. Peter of Alcántara.

It was done by a team of craftsmen under the direction of one of Spain's leading sculptors of the era, Pedro de la Mena.  The painted painted carving is extremely realistic, right down to the texture of the saint's cloak and the wrinkles on his face.  The eyes are made of glass imported from Venice.

Moving on from the Spanish art, here is a painting by the Flemish artist, Anthony van Dyck.  "Portrait of a Woman and Child" was done around 1625.  Van Dyck did most of his work in Genoa, Italy, and in England where he specialized in full length portraits of his wealthy clients.  His works created a sensation because he not only painted with skill the elegant clothing of his sitters, but also captured their warmth, vitality and personality.

One of the most famous painters of the Baroque era was the Flemish master, Peter Paul Rubens.  His paintings of curvaceous women gave us the word "rubenesque"  for a pleasingly plumb lady.  This painting, "Diana and her Nymphs Leaving for the Hunt" was done in 1615.  As was the case with many successful artists, Rubens did the important parts of the picture himself, and left the minor details to the assistants in his workshop.  The nymph to the right is a portrait of his first wife, Isabella.

Next to it is another painting by Rubens, one of his portraits of his wife, Isabella Brandt.

Rubens portrays a woman with a vivacious personality, perhaps a mischievous sense of humor.  She looks like someone you would like to meet.  Sadly, a few years after this was painted, Isabella died at the age of 34 from the plague. 

Claude Lorrain, from France was one of the first painters outside of the Netherlands, to specialize in landscapes.  However since paintings of Biblical or mythological scenes fetched a higher price, he often added some small figures to his paintings.

This work, "Rest on the Flight to Egypt" from the early 1640s, is mainly a beautiful, idealized landscape.

  

But at the bottom he places the Holy Family, attended by angels, resting on their way to Egypt.

Nicolas Poussin is considered the most important French painter of the Baroque era.  He did most of his work in Rome, but he briefly served as the court painter for Louis XIII.

His 1648 painting, "The Holy Family on the Steps" is done with clear colors, precise forms and a geometric organization.

In my next report from the Cleveland Museum of Art we shall go to France during the reign of the "Sun King" Louis XIV.