Spanish Masters from Zurbarán to Goya [antikvár]

b,the first quarter ofthe seventeenth century, the period marked by the emergence of the most famous masters of Spanish Baroque painting, Spain had lost its position as a world power. Under Elizabeth I the English fleet had destroyed the invincible armada and ships arriving from the colonies at the port of Seville no longer unloaded their plunder of gold and silver. The brilliant Charles V (known in Spain as Charles I) and his fanatic son Philip II were succeeded by weak pleasure-seeking rulers who devoted their lives to hunting and court intrigue. In the Alcázar of Madrid, in the hunting lodges Buen Retiro and El Pardo, in summer residences and in the Escorial, the greamess ofthe past was reflected only in the art of actors and painters. Residence at each court was strictly prescribed by tradition: the winter residence was in Madrid, in early spring the court moved to El Pardo, after Easter to Aranjuez, where the royal entourage could enjoy the parks as the trees began to blossom, while from late summer to Christmas the court remained at the Escorial. This vast complex, comprising a monastery as well as a palace, was built by Phüip II, a severe edifice of granite which merges into the surrounding mountains. The gray walls have a depressing and chilling efiect even on the hottest days of summer; at that time decoration of the palace was srill in progress.Philip III gave little encouragement to the development of literature and the fine arts, but Philip IV, who ascended the throne at the age of eighteen in 1623, was interested in the theatre and took pleasure in the embeDishment ofhis palaces. He acquired ancient sculptures as well as copies of antiques, he employed court architects and gave his court painter Diego Velázquez a commission to paint a series of portraits of the king and members of the royal family. The power and influence ofthe Spanish Habsburgs was now declining; at the same time, during the first half of the century, literature and the fine arts flourished, Cervantes's Don Quixote was published in 1604; Lope de Vega wrote proHficaUy for the stage; the poetry of Quevedo and Góngora was widely appreciated by the educated classes; and the picaresque novels which had appeared in the previous century were now published in innumerable new editions, while Cervantes's "Exemplary Novels" (Novelas ejemplares), brought out in 1613, were widely known and very popular.It is possible to define three schools of Spanish painting dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the seventeenth century there were only two: that of Castile (Madrid and Toledo) and that of Andalusia (Seville and Granada); but the definition of these two schools is not entirely