"Collections were assembled all over the Iberian peninsula on the basis of objects acquired throughout Italy, in the Low Countries, in England, from the Americas, and even from India and the Philippines" (Brown, Elliott 104). Madrid became the art center of Spain "because the Spanish collectors of the Golden Age...managed to inculcate in their society, and, more importantly, in their heirs, a sense of the value of art objects" (Brown, Elliott 104). Elsewhere in Europe, art collections have been subject to various misfortunes, seizures, sales, dispersals, etc. Yet, Spain is unique in its attachment to the works of art collected by its patrons during the Golden Age. "In spite of palace fires, Napoleonic rapacity, dynastic struggles, and tremendous social changes, the collected art remained. Even when dispersed, the best pieces often went to the king. The contrast between the collections of Charles I of England and Philip IV of Spain could not be greater" (Brown, Elliott 105).
Noblemen like Don Luis de Haro, the Count of Monterrey, and the Marquis of Leganes were integral in establishing the epoch of great art collections in Spain. Starting with Philip II, whose own private collections were filled with a love for style and innovation, Spain's elite sought to capture the brightest lights of intellectual and creative endeavors -- mostly with some Italian influence.
Spain was a nation of non-revolutionaries -- and such was mirrored in its approach to art collection. Philip IV's own "cultural ambitions" had been made all the greater following a visit of Charles, Prince of Wales to Madrid in 1623. Philip "was to be a refined and elegant prince at the center of a dazzling court -- a Planet King who would cast his beams over Europe and whose brilliance would be reflected and disseminated by a host of lesser lights" (Elliott 270). Thus explains his seeming entourage of noblemen whose tastes coincided with his own, and whose collections mirrored his. But when Charles arrived, Philip learned that he still had much to learn about...
The most famous genre painting by David is undoubtedly the Death of Marat (1793) which depicts French radical Jean-Paul Marat slumped over in his bathtub while holding a letter which he obviously was writing just before being killed by Charlotte Corday. The overall narrative of this painting -- the knife/murder weapon lying on the floor, the entry wound just above Marat's heart, his right arm draped over the edge of
The Romanticism of Goya's work is shown in the way that it is openly partisan and emotional -- it lacks the clean lines of David's painting and thus make the figures seem more worthy of pathos, more real as subjects to the viewer, even though the rendering of the subject may be less realistic on the surface. Goya's intent was to make a clear, partisan point that would move the
The exoticism and escapism of Romantic Art is manifest by the focus in the features of Napoleon on the bright or the wider scenes of the battlefield. However, it is the works of Francisco Goya that perhaps most perfectly epitomizes the intense individualism and emotion of Romantic art. Even the titles of Goya's works like "Yo lo Vi (This I saw)" and "Para Eso Yo Nacido (for this I
Chimu Indians The fifteenth-century Spanish travelers who embarked on voyages of discovery and conquest in the Americas expected to encounter primitive savage races. Instead, they found advanced civilizations with intricately designed cities, complex social hierarchies and accurate methods of calculating calendars. But despite this evidence, the Spaniards used the differences between the two sets of cultural beliefs and practices as proof of the inferiority of the Andean civilizations. Because of
At the time, the understanding was that state must be relatively autonomous from major religious concerns. The post-reformation European political theorists believed that Europe had experienced the religious conflict within states and between states, with support from the church. This experience called for a change in the relations between European religious institutions and political institutions. 5. Conquest and Colonization of the New World The centralization of Spain as a state within independent
Art History Sacred Spaces The Architecture of the Maya Deep in the tangled rainforests of Guatemala and the Yucatan, the Maya made some of the greatest contributions to world architecture. Their stone cities complete with temples, palaces, tombs, and ball courts are fitting monuments to the complex, and highly sophisticated civilization that existed in these regions many centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. Mayan priest-astronomers made elaborate calculations to catalog the passage
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