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The Baroque in the Construction of aNational Culture in Francoist Spain: AnIntroductionTobias Lockera

a Saint Louis University, MadridPublished online: 07 May 2014.

To cite this article: Tobias Locker (2014) The Baroque in the Construction of a National Culture inFrancoist Spain: An Introduction, Bulletin of Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and Researches onSpain, Portugal and Latin America, 91:5, 657-671, DOI: 10.1080/14753820.2014.908564

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The Baroque in the Construction of aNational Culture in Francoist Spain:

An Introduction

TOBIAS LOCKER

Saint Louis University, Madrid

After having defeated the legitimate Spanish government in the Civil War(1936–39) Franco’s regime would clearly express its ambitions to imperialgreatness. The new leadership found in the Baroque the past that it wantedto retrieve. With the intention of eradicating the Republican legacy and tosuppress oppositional thought it would use references and strategies fromthat period to re-shape Spain’s national culture in accordance with Francoistideology. References to the Baroque were applied to contemporary dis-courses, cultural practices and objects. Often they showed formalist orstructural traits and may as such be compared to the nineteenth-centuryNeo-Baroque. For example, the architectonic language developed by Juan deHerrera, which had provided the model during the Golden Age in Spain, wasoften deployed during Francoism too. But compared to nineteenth-centuryEclecticism(s), which used such formulae in a decorative way to bestow anaura of splendour upon a building, its re-use during the twentieth centurywent further, transcending any merely decorative function. Here, GoldenAge and Baroque formulas evoked within public architecture—especiallyduring the first two decades of the dictatorship—the political and culturalpredominance of Spain within the European Continent during the HabsburgEmpire.

The Baroque served as an ideological legitimizing construct mixingdifferent elements that were regarded by major cultural players duringFrancoism as specifically Spanish. It was, as Carmen Ortiz argues, to largeextent an ‘invented past’ that ‘appropriated historical events, mystified them,and endowed them with new eminently ritual and symbolic functions’.1 Thearticles of this Special Issue show that within the Baroque an emphasis wasplaced on the cultural production of the Spanish Golden Age, the once global

1 Carmen Ortiz, ‘The Uses of Folklore by the Franco Regime’, Journal of AmericanFolklore, 112:446 (1999), 479–96 (p. 483).

Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Volume XCI, Number 5, 2014

ISSN 1475-3820 print/ISSN 1478-3428 online/14/05/000657-15© 2014 Bulletin of Spanish Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2014.908564

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Habsburg Empire, and its particular Christian character. The imperial ideaand this religious character would lead to a broadening of the concept of theBaroque. Furthermore, it was enriched by the notion of hispanidad, whichexpressed the global character of the Spanish empire and the imperialambitions of Franco’s regime. However, the use of the Baroque wouldchange over time. During the early years of the dictatorship, Baroquereferences emphasized a glorious period of the Hispanic past that, accordingto the regime, ought to be re-created after the end of the Civil War. With theopening up of the country from the mid 1950s onwards, various culturalplayers would continue to adopt a Baroque that spoke positively to Spaniards’self-perception, but which transcended the ideologically more limited uses ofthe first decade.

This introduction to the present Special Issue will study some of themajor components of Francoist Baroque culture, exemplifying them throughthe most publicly visible adoption of the Baroque aesthetic: architecture. Inaddition, it will contextualize the different articles of the issue, which allexplore the use of the Baroque during Francoism within other fields,including politics, education, television and the fine and performing arts.These contributions examine the different facets of such uses of the Baroque,which lasted up until the end of the dictatorship. They also consider how theBaroque was regarded by the regime, regime-friendly cultural players and byopposition forces as an intellectually convincing concept for legitimatingdistinct groups’ different claims. When analysing the functions of theBaroque during the dictatorship, it becomes evident that they did notfollow one single clear-cut formula. Hence, the Baroque links createdduring the dictatorship do not reflect a consistent strategy as such, butinstead suggest a more complex and open-ended appropriation of Baroqueelements which were used by different political and cultural actors decisivelyto shape Spanish culture as a whole during that time.

The Use of the Baroque to Promote the Ideal of a ChristianEmpire

Franco’s imperial aspirations, which became apparent after the insurgents’victory, were not new, and certainly not exclusive to his New State: they hadalready been stated, for example, in the third point of the Falange’sdeclaration dating from November 1934:

Tenemos voluntad de Imperio. Afirmamos que la plenitud histórica deEspaña es el Imperio. Reclamamos para España un puesto preeminenteen Europa. No soportamos ni el aislamiento internacional ni lamediatización extranjera. Respecto de los países de Hispanoamérica,tendemos a la unificación de cultura, de intereses económicos y de Poder.

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España alega su condición de eje espiritual del mundo hispánico comotítulo de preeminencia en las empresas universales.2

This ‘voluntad de Imperio’ was based on the view that Spain had lost itsrightful status as a major player on the international scene. To a large extentit was rooted in the loss of Spain’s power over Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam andthe Philippines in 1898.3 This event, widely referred to as the ‘Desastre del98’, had undermined the vision of those chauvinists who still perceived Spainin terms of the once-great Habsburg Empire. The loss had not just meantthat these prestigious colonies of the formerly grand empire in the Caribbeanand Asia had gone; within the context of an ongoing European power struggle—manifesting also in the conquest of new colonies—it was perceived as ademotion of Spain’s status in the international arena. It is therefore nosurprise that conservative Francoist propaganda would turn to the fertileground of imperial chauvinism, and would focus its efforts to gain historicallegitimization on the Hispanic Empire.4

Such a conception of Empire referred firstly to Spain’s rule over anextensive group of territories at the peak of its political power in thesixteenth and part of the seventeenth century. Furthermore, it referred to aprivileged relationship between the Spanish crown and the Holy See, arelation that had existed at least since Isabel and Fernando had received thetitle ‘Catholic King and Queen’ from Pope Alexander VI in 1496. Thesebonds had been renewed during the following century by Charles V and hisson, who both fought for the cause of the Counter-Reformation. The figure ofPhilip II became particularly important for Francoist propaganda:5 his reignhad emphasized the king’s absolute sovereignty as well as the Catholicfaith.6 But, despite his religious efforts for the Counter-Reformation, Philiphad refused to accept the Pope’s divine power over him, thus retaining hispolitical autonomy.7 This model became important for Francoists.

2 José Antonio Primo de Rivera, ‘España: los “26 puntos” del falangismo’, quoted in Losfascismos europeos. La historia en sus textos, ed. Elena Hernández Sandoica (Madrid: Istmo1995), 118–21 (p. 118).

3 Paul Preston, The Politics of Revenge. Fascism and the Military in 20 thCentury Spain(London: Routledge 1990), 12.

4 In this sense Franco’s Spain is comparable to other contemporaneous fascist regimes:thus Hitler focused his imperial aspirations on creating a Third Reich on the ideological basisof the Holy Roman Empire and Mussolini based his own ambitions on the Roman Empire.

5 Preston, The Politics of Revenge, 40 ff.6 Hans-Otto Kleinmann, ‘Der aufgeklärte Absolutismus in Spanien‘, in Der aufgeklärte

Absolutismus im europäischen Vergleich, ed. Helmut Reinhalter and Harm Klueting (Wien:Böhlau 2002), 113–28.

7 In the words of Norbert Brieskorn, in so doing, the king had ‘sacralised the Monarchy’(Norbert Brieskorn, ‘Skizze des römisch-katholischen Rechtsdenkens im 16. Jahrhundert undseine Spuren im Denken der Societas Jesu und des Petrus Canisius’, in Petrus Canisius SJ(1521–1597). Humanist und Europäer, ed. Rainer Berndt (Berlin: Akademie 2000), 39–76(p. 45).

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The Franco regime’s insistence on Spain’s Catholic character wascertainly an important factor that made the connection between empireand Christian faith more attractive for conservative elites. Stanley Paynementions that ‘by the time of the Civil War [Franco] gave every evidence ofbelieving that the faith and Spanish nationalism were consubstantial’.8 Thisconviction was one of the reasons that Nacionalcatolicismo became part ofFrancoist ideological identity.9 Just two years after the end of the Civil War,a special relationship between dictatorial Spain and the Vatican wasofficially sealed, and in 1946 an ‘Accord on Ecclesiastical Universities andSeminaries’, was signed, strengthening the Church’s growing influence onthe educational sector decisively.10

In his contribution to this Special Issue ‘Education and the Baroque inEarly Francoism’, Till Koessler explores some of the characteristics of therelation between State and Church within childhood education. His articleshows that some Catholic educators, despite their triumph in gainingdecisive influence in the field, also subjected their and the Church’s role tocritical scrutiny, and the author demonstrates how they undertook a decisivestep towards a renewal of Catholic as well as national education. In theirsearch for models that could point the way, reformers turned towards theBaroque, and especially to the Jesuit college system. Hence, the authorshows that Francoism did not necessarily mean the end of education reforminitiatives and he illustrates how the deployment of the past could providemodels for the future.

The references to Spain’s Catholicism were not limited to the SpanishEmpire. They included also the Reconquista of the Middle Ages, the‘unification’ of Spain under the Catholic monarchs Isabel and Fernando, andPhilip II’s attempt to build a Catholic Empire as a bulwark againstProtestantism. Such perspectives provided a heterogeneous and opportunisticconcept that enabled interpretive flexibility. Marie-Aline Barrachina arguestherefore that ‘autrement dit, le récit historique sur lequel se fonde lapropagande du regime […] trouve sa source dans une nébuleuse culturellesuffisament vaste pour favoriser un consensus national’.11

8 Stanley G. Payne, Spanish Catholicism: An Historical Overview (Madison: Univ. ofWisconsin Press 1984), 173.

9 Regarding this topic see: Alfonso Botti, Cielo y dinero: el Nacionalcatolicismo enEspaña (1881–1975) (Madrid: Alianza 1992); Gregorio Cámara Villar, Nacionalcatolicismo yescuela: la socialización política del franquismo, 1936–1951 (Jaén: Editorial Hespérida 1983).

10 See ‘Accord on the Privilege of Presentation’ (1941) and ‘Accord on EcclesiasticalUniversities and Seminaries’ (1946), <http://www.concordatwatch.eu/showtopic.php?org_id=845&kb_header_id=34561> (accessed 15 August 2013).

11 Marie-Aline Barrachina, Propagande et culture dans l’Espagne franquiste. 1936–1945(Grenoble: Ellug, 1998) 164.

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Hispanidad and the Use of the Baroque to Promote the Conceptof a Spiritual Empire

From the beginning of the Francoist period, Spain’s Catholic identity hadbeen an important element in its propaganda efforts long before the dictatorhad declared himself ‘Sentinel of the Occident’.12 But the regime would evengo further, transcending historical and geographical boundaries by adding aspiritual level to the attempted imperial renewal that was not solely rootedin Christianity: it did so by invoking the concept of hispanidad,13 a notionthat first developed at the end of the nineteenth century shortly before Spainlost its colonial possessions in Cuba.14 It linked political and culturalaspirations and aimed to gain predominant influence over a spiritualempire that would comprise the Spanish-speaking world, intentions alreadyexpressed in the 1934 Falange declaration quoted above.15

Even though the ‘regathering’ of the lost colonies under the aegis ofSpain’s cultural leadership was never achieved, Eduardo González Callejaand Fredes Limón Nevado have argued that hispanidad brought ‘ununiverso de imágenes, símbolos y conceptos tópicos y simplistas, pero deuna gran pervivencia en la “ideología” oficial, la socialización de la misma yla propia mentalidad colectiva’.16 This ‘universo de imágenes’ was based onthe Spanish language, which, since Nebrija’s first grammar of the Castilianlanguage in 1492, had been an important tool supporting Spain’s ideologicalhegemony. Of course such a function of language and, by extension, culturewas not an idea invented by Francoist intellectuals. This formula hadalready been stressed by Nebrija, who dedicated his Gramática de lalengua castellana to Queen Isabel with the following words:

Cuando bien comigo pienso mui esclarecida Reina: y pongo delante losojos el antigüedad de todas las cosas: que para nuestra recordación ememoria quedaron escriptas: una cosa hallo y saco por conclusión mui

12 See the semi-official biography: Luis de Galínsoga (with Francisco Franco), Centinelade Occidente (Barcelona: Editorial AHR, 1956).

13 Regarding this topic see: María Dolores de la Calle Velasco, ‘Hispanoamericanismo.De la fraternidad cultura a la defensa de la Hispanidad’, in Jirones de Hispanidad: España,Cuba, Puerto Rico y Filipinas en la perspectiva de dos cambios de siglo, ed. Mariano Esteban deVega, Francisco de Luis Martín and Antonio Morales Moya (Salamanca: Univ. de Salamanca2004), 151–72 (pp. 169 ff.); Celestino del Arenal, La política exterior de España haciaIberoamérica (Madrid: Editorial Complutense 1994), 30. See also Eduardo González Callejaand Fredes Limón Nevado, La Hispanidad como instrumento de combate. Raza e imperio en laprensa franquista durante la Guerra Civil española (1936–1939) (Madrid: CSIC, 1988).

14 Carlos Serrano, Final del Imperio. España 1895–1898 (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1984),64–74.

15 Primo de Rivera, ‘España: los “26 puntos” del falangismo’, quoted in Los fascismoseuropeos, ed. Hernández Sandoica, 118.

16 González Calleja and Limón Nevado, La Hispanidad como instrumento decombate, 96.

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cierta: que siempre la lengua fue compañera del imperio: y de tal maneralo siguió: que junta mente començaron, crecieron, y florecieron, y despuésjunta fue la caída de entrambos.17

The idea that language has always been a consort of the empire and thatthey come together into being, grow, flower and decline together is actuallythe spirit that guides Francoist attempts to create a spiritual Empire underthe banner of hispanidad.18 Therefore the ‘universe of images’ that Callejaand Nevado refer to can be understood as a melting pot comprising, interalia, the Christian Monarchs Isabel and Fernando as well as the literaryproduction of the Golden Age. Because of its relatively broad conception, thisimagery could be easily adapted according to the discourse employed, thusgaining agglutinating force within the building of a national and culturalidentity during the first phases of the dictatorship.

The extreme flexibility of such a concept in the political sphere is stressedby Johannes Großmann in his contribution to this Special Issue, ‘BaroqueSpain As a Metaphor. Hispanidad, Europeanism and Cold War Anti-Communism in Francoist Spain’. The author traces hispanidad’s changingcharacter through the activities of the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica (ICH)and the Centro Europeo de Documentación e Información (CEDI). His textshows that hispanidad as an ideological tool was not bound to orthodoxinflexibility. Thanks to its adaptability, it was useful in Francoist foreignpolicy and in Spain’s Cold War integration into Europe. From the Civil Warrhetoric to Spain’s integration into the Western camp of the Cold War, aconceptual shift is perceivable, transforming the originally exclusive idea of ahispanidad determined by the Spanish language into an agglutinatingconcept that could serve as a—Catholic—model for the anti-communistfight against the Eastern Bloc.

Baroque and Golden Age—The Language of the Spanish Empire

As Spain’s imperial past served as a basis for the search for ideologicallegitimation of the Francoist regime, it was logical that its culturalexpression would provide models for translating this idea into public policy.This diffuse historic construct, including Empire, Christianity andhispanidad—rightfully characterized by Barrachina as ‘une nébuleuse

17 Antonio de Nebrija, Gramática de la lengua castellana (1492), prologue, <http://www.antoniodenebrija.org/prologo.html> (accessed: 12 August 2013).

18 As hispanidad referred to cultural politics especially with regard to the formercolonies language always played an important part within this concept. But the languagequestion was also important in the Spanish Peninsula. See Clare Mar-Molinero, ‘The Role ofLanguage in Spanish Nation-Building’, in Nationalism and the Nation in the IberianPeninsula: Competing and Conflicting Identities, ed. Clare Mar-Molinero and Angel Smith(Oxford: Berg, 1996), 69–88 (p. 81).

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culturelle’19—can be understood by its lowest common denominator: theBaroque. Nevertheless, this term refers here to a conceptual time-frame thatcould be broader than the actual historic epoch, extending back to theRenaissance and even to the (Reconquista of the) Middle Ages. The focus ofthis specific understanding of the Baroque during Francoism was the so-called ‘Golden Age’ a term referring to the (historically acknowledged)cultural heyday of Spain, and a prime age of artistic expression inliterature, theatre, painting, sculpture and architecture during thecountry’s dominant position in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenthcentury.20 Here, both Baroque and Golden Age constitute a flexibleconglomerate rather than clear-cut concepts, comprising imperialaspiration, historic legitimization and artistic as well as propagandastrategies deriving from Spain’s past.

In the wake of the Council of Trent (1545–63) the battle againstProtestant heretics was not just fought with weapons but with religiousarguments, censorship and, above all, the creation of a propagandaapparatus that made use of the arts.21 In his attempts to re-conquerEurope (and the world) for the Catholic Church the Spanish king took veryseriously the decisions of the Council of Trent regarding dogmata,22 liturgy23

or questions pertaining to the use of sacred images.24 This produced a veryparticular artistic expression in Spain. While Catholic Rome was visiblytransformed into the representative capital of Christendom,25 Philip II wouldsignal his status as a Christian monarch fighting for Catholicism by buildingthe monastery palace El Escorial (fig. 1).

The specific artistic formulae of that building were different from thelanguages developed around the same time in Italy. This becomes evidentwhen, for example, comparing St Peter’s Basilica with the basilica San

19 Barrachina, Propagande et culture dans l’Espagne franquiste, 164.20 See for example: Bartomlomé Bennassar, La España del Siglo de Oro (Barcelona:

Editorial Critica 1983); Jonathan Brown, The Golden Age of Painting in Spain (New Haven:Yale U. P., 1991).

21 Thymian Bussemer, Propaganda. Konzepte und Theorien, 2nd ed. (Wiesbaden:Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2008), 2; István György Tóth, ‘Kommentar:Kommunikation der Gegenreformation’, in Staatsmacht und Seelenheil, Gegenreformationund Geheimprotestantismus in der Habsburgermonarchie, ed. Rudolf Leeb, SusanneClaudine Pils and Thomas Winkelbauer (Wien: Oldenbourg, 2007), 69–72 (pp. 70 ff.).

22 3rd–7th session (In nomine sancte, 4 February 1546; Sacrosanta oecumemica (1), 8April 1546; Ut fides nostra catholica, 17 June 1546; Cum hoc tempore, 13 January 1547; Adconsuccationem, 3 March 1547).

23 22nd session (Sacorsancta oecomenica, 17 September 1562).24 25th session (Cum catholica ecclesia, 4 December 1563).25 This undertaking is especially associated with Pope Sixtus V’s initiatives in urban

planning as well as numerous construction projects. The city became a showpiece for theCatholic renewal. There, pilgrims would for example be led on their affirmation of faith bystraight boulevards featuring fountains and converted ancient monuments, to the mostimportant churches.

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Lorenzo el Real de El Escorial. This church’s original designs were executedby Juan Bautista de Toledo who had worked in Rome under Michelangelo atthe construction site of St Peter’s.26 Therefore, San Lorenzo’s massivecrossing piers, supporting the dome, are clearly referencing the Romanmodel. But whereas the architectonic language of Christendom’s first church,with its colossal Corinthian pilasters and its ostentatious use of expensivematerials, stresses the magnificence of the building, such exaltation is notvisible in the church of El Escorial. Juan de Herrera, Toledo’s successor,would execute the interior of San Lorenzo in a way that lacks exuberantornament: a simple Doric order was used and no further architectonic orsculptural ornaments were employed; the granite of the walls remainedvisible and only the main altar is built in marble, demonstrating, in its threelevels, the whole declination of the troika of Greek classical orders. Thissoberness must be seen in connection with the Counter-Reformation. As theconstruction of El Escorial started the same year the Council of Trent ended,

Figure 1(Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de) El Escorial/San Lorenzo de El Escorial(architects: Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera, 1563–1584).

Photograph by Tobias Locker.

26 A. Dobler, ‘Juan Bautista de Toledo’, in Biographisch-BibliographischesKirchenlexikon, ed. Traugott Bautz, Vol. 12 (Herzberg: Bautz, 1997), col. 293–94.

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its architecture can be interpreted as a very rational application of thecouncil’s final decrees that forbade unnecessary decorativeness.27 Whereasin Italy mannerist architects had laid the ground for an art that wouldeventually find expression in (religious) Baroque architecture with itsaccentuation of the façades and interiors of churches in order to overwhelmthe fervent worshipper and appeal to his/her senses, in Spain a different pathwas chosen. There Phillip II and his architects Toledo and especially Herrerahad opted for another solution, a severe classicism that expressed the ideas ofthe Counter-Reformation with the artistic means of the Renaissance and therationality of Humanist thought28.

Herrera’s particular architectural language, developed from hispredecessor’s ideas, had spread throughout Spain and the HabsburgEmpire and would dominate the architecture of Spain’s Golden Age.Therefore it was considered by the Franco regime as the aestheticexpression of the Spanish Empire par excellence. The monastery-palace ElEscorial became exemplary, as its architecture did not just provide the modelfor almost the whole seventeenth century, but was furthermore imbued withmeaning that was of special interest for the dictatorship. Its ground planexpresses the duality of state and church under the sole guidance of onepolitical leader, thus depicting the desired model for the creation of anational culture. This is visible on different levels. For example, the royalpalace is wrapped like an envelope around the choir of the basilica, which isat the centre of the whole complex; the apartments of the king (and thequeen) are provided with passages giving direct access to the main altar. Justas faith was present in the daily life of the monarch, so the king could attendchurch services at all times and was also present in church life.29

Furthermore, the royal pantheon conceived under Philip II, but finallyfinished long after his death in the seventeenth century, must be read asanother link between monarchy and church. It was not just a dynasticresting-place, but rather a solid indication of the strength of the CatholicChurch resting on the (buried) shoulders of the Habsburg dynasty anddepending on that dynasty for its future power.

Of course, the Franco regime was not interested in recreating everyaspect of this model, but it would use artistic quotation that linked its

27 25th session of the Council of Trent (Cum catholica ecclesia, 4 December 1563).28 Fernando Checa, ‘Arte y religión en el siglo XVI. Las ideas de Felipe II en el

monasterio de El Escorial’, in De El Bosco a Tiziano. Arte y Maravilla en El Escorial, ed.Fernando Checa (Madrid: Patrimonio Nacional 2013), 15–34.

29 This idea also becomes visible with the two cenotaphs consisting of several bronzesculptures (Charles V and his wives, installed in 1597, and the group of Philip II and hisspouses, installed in 1600 after the king’s death) placed above the doors that connect the altarwith the royal chambers. For the aspect of El Escorial as a dynastic monument, see FernandoCheca, ‘Un monumento para la casa de Austria‘, in De El Bosco a Tiziano, ed. Checa, 105–07(p. 105).

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imperial ambitions with that past. The simplest way was to use thearchitectonic language of Juan de Herrera that had already dominatedarchitecture within Spain after the completion of the Escorial and adapt it tothe regime’s own needs. Standing as architectonic cypher for an ‘imperialstyle’, it served as model for various buildings during the Francodictatorship, for example, the Neo-Herrerian language features mostprominently in Madrid at the Ministerio del Aire, which seems a smaller-scale copy of the Escorial (fig. 2). The rather plain brick façades with hugetowers at the four corners and the distinctive roofs immediately recall themonastery-palace. Also, the central entrance featuring an arc-of-triumphmotif within a Tuscan order is styled after the main entrance of El Escorial(fig. 3). The latter is arguably richer, as it features two registers withsuperposed orders (a Tuscan/Doric and an Ionic), but the portal of theministry follows the same simple language that had been created by Herrera.These architectonic references were (and are still) highly recognizable.

Herrera’s language was not just used for official buildings, but also forprivate ones such as the Edificio España, the first sky-scraper of Madrid thatwas built between 1948 and 1953 by Julián Ortamendi on family property.This prestige building was, till 1957, the tallest building in Spain and itdemonstrates several features of the Spanish Golden Age. It shows Herrerianelements such as the small stone pyramids crowned by spheres at its top—a

Figure 2Ministerio del Aire, Madrid

(architects: Luis Gutiérrez Soto, Ramón Beamonte, 1943–1958).Photograph by Tobias Locker.

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detail in frequent usage in the architecture of that time. Furthermore, themain entrance features an advanced interpretation of the Herrerian style, asit was used by Juan Gómez de Mora (1586–1648). It is less classical thenHerrera’s language, mixing mannerist motifs like ashlar pilasters thatappear in the entrance’s four registers—partly crowned by brokenpediments—with round moulded profiles framing the windows. Thesefeatures speak for an Italian Baroque influence, which is also present inGómez de Mora’s architecture.30

Golden-Age architecture also featured prominently within thearchitectonic language of the Church and many religious foundations ofcolegios mayores, such as the Colegio Mayor Universitario San Pablo inMadrid, are proof of the Herrerian heritage during Francoism (fig. 4).31 Builtin 1951, its simple, geometric façade, its colossal Tuscan temple-front motifat the main entrance and the decorations on the top of the façade—pyramids

Figure 3Central entrance of the palace (Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de) El Escorial/San Lorenzode El Escorial (architects: Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera, 1563–1584).

Photograph by Tobias Locker.

30 On the ground floor the entrance shows a tuscan/doric order of ashlar pilasters, on thesecond (the piano nobile) a tuscan/doric order of pilasters superimposed on ashlar lisenes andon the following two levels again two different types of tuscan/doric ashlar pilasters. TodayGomez’ architecture in Madrid is still visible at the Casa de la Villa (begun in 1644).

31 Other examples besides the Colegio Mayor Universitario San Pablo, which wasfounded in 1949 by the Asociación Católica de Propagandistas, are: the Colegio MayorUniversitario Moncloa, Madrid (founded in 1941 by Opus Dei), the Colegio Mayor Miraflores,Zaragoza (founded in 1950 by Opus Dei), the Colegio Mayor Universitario San JuanEvangelista, Madrid (founded in 1966 by the Fundación Santa María/Arzobispado deMadrid) and the Colegio Mayor Loyola, Granada (also founded in 1966 by the Society of Jesus).

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crowned with spheres—recall the Escorial. But it was not just religiousuniversity accommodation that was Neo-Herrerian in style as the UniversityLa Laboral in Gijón demonstrates. Built between 1946 and 1956 by the state,its largely symmetrical ground plan and much of its exterior also referencethe monastery-palace.32

Architecture was not just imbued with imperial impetus by the use of thisroyal residence as a model. Buildings could reference the Escorial’s memorialfunction as a way of invoking transcendent meaning. In her contribution tothis Special Issue, ‘Reinterpreting the Past: The Baroque Phantom duringFrancoism’, Paula Barreiro López points out that the close connection ofChurch and State in the glorification of the Francoist victory waspermanently present. She mentions as examples the large number ofcrosses erected for the caídos and the Valle de los Caídos. The latter,especially, is of interest in regard to the creation of a national culture. It wasconceived as a national monument transforming the Civil War into a mythicbeginning of the new state. Actually, the constellation of abbey and basilica

Figure 4Colegio Mayor Universitario San Pablo, Madrid(architect: José María de la Vega, 1945–1951).

Photograph by Tobias Locker.

32 The interior, however, demonstrates with its chapel and the exterior of the paraninfoa more ornate language. It recalls the architecture that Charles V had seen during his time inItaly, and which found its (Spanish) expression in his palace in Granada. As the entrancereproduces the motif of a Roman triumphal arc, it can be connected directly to classicalarchitecture recalling the Roman Empire.

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including the graves of more than 40,000 soldiers recalls the Escorial, theHabsburg monument whose royal pantheon legitimated the dynasty.33

The spiritual aesthetic of the Valle de los Caídos replicates El Escorial too.The bodies of the dead (and their sacrifice) are the foundations of the state tocome.34 The Benedictine abbey serves the same purpose as the monasteryintegrated in the Escorial: to pray for the salvation of the deceased and for thefuture to come. This connection was stressed by Franco in a 1959 interviewgranted to Emilio Romero. According to the dictator, El Escorial was ‘destinadoa dar honra, preces y sepultura a nuestros caídos por Dios y por España’ and itwas ‘el monumento de nuestra grandeza pasada y la basilica y anejos del Vallede los Caídos el jalón y pase de partida de nuestro futuro’.35

Whereas the language of Herrera (in large part encompassing Renaissanceclassicism but nevertheless included in the Francoist understanding ofBaroque/Golden Age) was favoured for architecture, in less enduring mediamore clearly and specifically Baroque aesthetics were often chosen. Because oftheir sensuality and their capacity to move the spectator emotionally, theywere regarded as very effective. Barreiro López notes in her text that thecommemorations of the insurgents’ coup of 18 July were centrally planned andBaroque strategies deployed. Clear instructions were given and a commontheme defined all of these propaganda activities: the celebration of the glorious,God-given victory and the punishment of the sinful rojos. This approach recallsthe dichotomy of ‘true and false faith’ during the Spanish Reconquista as wellas the veneration of God during the times of Philip II. In his contribution to thisSpecial Issue, Till Koessler also refers to this process when he notes that,besides the attempt to revitalize the Jesuit college system, the Church revivedceremonies of great pomp that recalled the splendour of the Baroque. In thissense, Baroque splendour was not an end to itself, depicting, like the above-mentioned commemorations, a higher truth. At school, integrating pupils,parents and also the political and military sector into ceremonies, itrepresented an attempt to show the harmonious world order that ruledduring the historic Baroque period—more idealized than true of course.

The Baroque was far from being a reference just within the regime’scultural and political discourse, or within the circles of conservative artists. Itwas adopted within the cultural scene of Francoist Spain to legitimize even

33 Most of these soldiers, numbering as many as 70,000, were Francoists (see AntonioCarzola Sánchez, Fear and Progress: Ordinary Life in Franco’s Spain, 1939–1975 [Oxford:Wiley-Blackwell, 2010], 21).

34 Even though most buried men were insurgents, there was also a certain number ofRepublican soldiers amongst them. This is still today cause of controversy—besides the factthat Franco’s body has found its final resting place in the basilica, which until today prompts‘pilgrimages’ to the site by supporters on the anniversary of the dictator’s death.

35 Francisco Franco in an interview with Emilio Romero, published in the journal Puebloon 1 May 1959, quoted in Alexandre Cirici, La estética del franquismo (Barcelona: EditorialGustavo Gilli, 1977), 113–17 (pp. 116, 113).

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vanguard art. Noemí de Haro-García and Julián Díaz-Sánchez show in theirarticle ‘Artistic Dissidence under Francoism: The Subversion of the Cliché’that these references were also assimilated by anti-Francoist forces. Artistsand cultural actors such as Estampa Popular, working in direct connectionwith the clandestine Communist Party, referred to the same past, aimingto reinforce political resistance by appealing to national values. Othervanguard artists, such as those of Geometrical-Abstract tendencies, werealso interested in the Spanish Masters. Concerned with questions aboutphysical space, they turned to Velázquez and found in him a Hispanic andautochthonous predecessor36 who—in the words of Giménez Pericás—‘habíatomado conciencia del progreso científico de su tiempo, de la idea delUniverso que brota contemporánea a su obra’.37 This return to Velázquezindicates the extent of the cultural capital that the Baroque had acquired,and its essential role in legitimizing cultural expressions in Francoist Spain.Whereas informel painting had been quickly accepted by officials for itssupposed ‘Hispanic character’, and was thus easily integrated in theregime’s discourse,38 Geometrical art, from the late 1950s, met withcontinual accusations of having foreign roots, and of showing an ‘influenciatranspirenaica’.39 Hence, Geometrical artists stressed the connection toVelázquez even though their work was closely linked to the Parisian avant-gardes.40 One could argue that for those of them with connections to the ArteNormativo movement, the link to Velázquez—and the Baroque tradition—provided acceptance and even national legitimization.

Carey Kasten’s article ‘Staging the Golden Age in Latin America: JoséTamayo’s Strategic Ascent in the Francoist Theatre Industry’ also studies

36 Manuel Calvo, Equipo 57, Eusebio Sempere and Grupo Parpalló declared themselvesheirs of Velázquez (see Paula Barreiro López, La abstracción geométrica en España, 1957–1969[Madrid, CSIC, 2009], 109, 114, 163, 180).

37 Cited in Barreiro López, La abstracción geométrica, 177.38 For study of the regime’s Baroque interpretation of the informel see: Julián Díaz

Sánchez, La idea de arte abstracto en la España de Franco (Madrid: Cátedra, 2013) and JorgeLuis Marzo, ¿Puedo hablarle con libertad excelencia? (Murcia: CENDEAC, 2010).

39 Paula Barreiro López, Arte normativo Español. Procesos y principios para la creaciónde un movimiento (Madrid: CSIC, 2006), 63.

40 Several exhibitions by Geometrical artists, such as the collectives Equipo 57 or GrupoParpalló, commemorated the third centenary of Velázquez’s death in 1660 (Equipo 57.Homenaje a Velázquez, Sala Darro, Madrid, 16–31 May 1960; A Don Diego Velázquez Silva.Grupo Parpalló, Sala Mateu, Valencia, February 1961). Equipo 57 was interested in thepainter since, ‘dentro de la tradición española, ha indagado más conscientemente una analíticadel espacio’ (Barreiro López, La abstracción geométrica en España, 177). The Geometricalartist Eusebio Sempere even linked his artistic practices directly to the Baroque master andstated in his exhibition ‘0 Figura. Homenaje informal a Velázquez’, which took place in 1960 atthe Sala Gaspar in Barcelona: ‘Velázquez es el pintor más sabio. Yo le admiro doblementeporque he reemprendido, modestamente, algunos aspectos de su obra. Espacio, luz,movimiento, equilibrio’ (Eusebio Sempere, cited in Barreiro López, La abstraccióngeométrica en España, 163).

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the legitimizing effect of the Baroque. Her text shows that the director of theLope de Vega theatre company José Tamayo was able to secure financialsupport for a tour in Latin America by emphasizing the established canon ofGolden-Age theatre and the regime’s politics of hispanidad. The authorprovides us with an example of the opportunistic use of the Baroque as JoséTamayo presented himself as cultural ambassador for the regime that wouldhave liked to see a revival of Spain’s cultural hegemony in the past. Hence,Tamayo was playing the regime’s tune in order to receive advantages.

The contribution ‘Lo barroco en la televisión franquista: tipos y temas;actores y escenarios’ by Julián Montero and María Antonia Paz completesthis Special Issue. It is a quantitative analysis of Baroque topics in Spanishtelevision (1967–1975). The authors demonstrate certain shifts in the choiceof topics. Whereas theatre and television programmes about literaturefeatured heavily in early programmes, the focus would eventually widen toinclude broadcasts about Baroque painters and more sophisticatedproductions like historical documentaries. The authors show that, intelevision, links particularly to the Golden Age were emphasized and arguethat this historical construct referred above all to Spain’s greatness. Incomparison to the broader view of the Baroque period that could also includethe decline of the Habsburg monarchy in the seventeenth century, theBaroque had in this context almost exclusively positive connotations and wastherefore the preferred conceptualization.

The persistence of Baroque references as analysed in this Special Issuedemonstrates that the re-interpretation of Spain’s past was, despite its lackof consistency, continuous throughout the regime. Even though its usechanged and became increasingly conceptual and abstract, as, for example,Barreiro López shows in her contribution, the Baroque was regarded by theregime and by oppositional forces as an intellectually convincing concept.Consequently, Baroque imagery touched the whole of society and was to helpto shape cultural, intellectual, political and social life during Francoism. ThisSpecial Issue attempts a critical analysis of this Baroque re-interpretationviewed from different angles. It is the editors’ hope that the assessmentsgiven here might incite further research into this interesting field—perhapsextending it to include study of the Baroque imprint on the culturalsubconscious of contemporary Spain.

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