Kate NguyenHistory of Spanish Art Professor J. MedinaThe art of portraiture within the religious intensity of SpainHistorically, the Spaniards tend to consider the human figure, the individual human being of flesh and blood, of great interest and importance. This is especially interesting given the intensity of religious devotion in the country. Thus, the Renaissance that swept Europe at the time combined with true Spanish elements created artworks of extreme importance and highly distinctive of the Spanish mystic strain. Religion was placed above all, and there was a relative absence of fantastical and mythological subjects. Instead, the stylistic focus was on realism, discovery of depth and the effects of light. Attention to the human figure instead of focus on landscape and portraitures came from Michelangelo, and the Spanishs palette was influenced by Spanishs artists frequent visits and apprenticeships in Venice. Religion has always been at the heart of the Spaniards, and that remained true especially when the wave of reformers that belonged to the new Protestant religious movement that believed in national or personal self-determination threatened to uproot the Catholic Church. At the same time, there was a general widening of human intellectual horizons, triggered by developments in science and by geographical explorations of the globe. To counter the efforts of Martin Luther and reinforce the importance of the Church-state duopoly, the Church commissioned an endless stream of Biblical art, designed to illustrate important parts of Catholic theological dogma. Meantime, Emperors and Kings proclaimed their own authority by hiring architects to build palaces, embellished with murals, oil painting and other forms of decorative art.

By the late 1570s, Rome was no longer the religious center of the world. The heart of the Counter-Reformation was in Spain. The Escorial was being built as the new citadel of the Faith, and the palaces of Toledo were being turned into monasteries and convents. In the spring of 1577, the resident Mannerist El Greco spent two years in painting his first great work, the altarpiece for San Domingo el Antiguo. The passionate and often extravagant spirit of the Baroque had now possessed him. His genius was of special importance to the Church, as they needed an important artistic influence to counter Martin Luther, when Berruguetes emphatic mannerism had waned. Not long after, however, the country dwindled. The last three Hapsburg kings proved unfit to rule, and government was run by irresponsible nobles. Extreme corruption abounded as a result, and finally, a Bourbon king replaced the last Hapsburg on the throne. In this latter period, Baroque takes center stage. It carries within itself a certain authenticity as a true Spanish creation, basing off on a religious basis and not a copy of other influences. Tenebrism became dominant in paintings, along with a certain idealized realism and theatrical elements. Notable artists include Francisco Ribalta, who was the first to embrace the new realism, with bolder and freer brushwork that remained within skillful drawing of outlines, or the devout Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664), noted for his depictions of monks, the spiritual mystic elements that meshed with ones that belonged to realism, and his obsession with garment and still life, and Diego Velazquez (1599-1660), official painter to the Spanish court in Madrid who combined realism with the Baroque emphasis on light and illusionism. Finally, a comparison between the works of Jose Ribera, Murillo and El Greco will be of special interest, especially through a close examination of the Cretans self-portrait. El Grecos Self- portrait as St Luke does not strike as a stereotypical portrait by the artist. El Greco is at once manneristic in his spiritual works, but he reserves the utmost realism for his portraits. It is only in El Greco's saints that we find deliberate distortion and an unearthly radiance. When he paints ordinary human beings, like his daughter, it is as though they were reflected in a mirror. There are many renditions of this same theme, but in most of them, theres a halo-like crown of light around St Lukes head, executed between 1605 and 1610, now in the Sacristy of the Cathedral of Toledo. Tradition says that Luke, besides being the author of the Gospel that bears his name, was an artist. Who better to appreciate the equality of words and images? Here he holds a book in one hand, and a brushor is it a pen?in the other. His body language is powerful: he seems to be gesturing us towards the book, perhaps reminding us to again, read this important doctrine. The book is open to reveal a page of text, presumably his Gospel, which vividly describes in words the Annunciation and Nativity of Christ; on the facing page, there is a painted representation of the Madonna and Child. It is important to note the significance of this scene. In traditional Catholic dogma, especially in Spain, the Virgin Mary is placed front and center. We remember various depictions of the Immaculada by Murillo, who used a soft, light-toned spiritual realism to portray this scene. In one, the young Virgin Mary stands suspended on a crescent moon above a cloud, clothed in blue and white, and is accompanied by putti who hold flowers and palms to reference her purity and other attributes. She is surrounded by a golden glow, almost halo-like to reference her divinity, and her hands are clasped to denote her piety while her face looks upward. Her feet gingerly rest upon a delicate crescent moon. This is exactly the Virgin Mary as leaders of the Catholic Counter-Reformation would have pictured it. Like Murillo, El Greco was an artist of the Church, and the artist appropriately places one of the most important scenes in this self-portrait. The lighting is typical tenebrism of this period, where the center is brightly lit to reveal a gaunt man, which contrasts with the completely dark backdrop. We are reminded of the resemblance to The Bearded Woman by Ribera, who also tended towards the chiaroscuro technique popular at the time. Here, the sitters eyes are not directed at the viewer, but instead slightly diverging, which lend him an air of reverie or abstraction; perhaps he is contemplating the word with one eye and the image with another. In a different version of the same painting, St Luke is actually holding the Gospel with both hands, reviewing its content which is turned away from us. The most noteworthy aspect of this portrait is the manner with which El Greco portrayed his face: with very fair, blanched skin and a certain gauntness that is further emphasized by the slight elongation of the face. Usually in his portraits, such as that of the aristocratic in white ruff he often painted, the face is usually more naturalistic, and any deformation is completely natural and not an attempt at intensifying the personage. Similar to Ribera, who seeks to show individual dignity and interior drama, but through seeking out macabre elements, El Greco himself also seeks to show realism and personality in his sitter. However, here not only is his face stylized, so are his fingers, which are elongated and very posed, just like those we have seen in The Disrobing of Christ, or even more similarly, St John the Evangelist. His face somewhat reminds us of The Martyrdom of San Bartolome in its complacency and hollowness. Lastly, an analysis of the painting would be incomplete without a discussion of the vibrant green robe he wears. Immediately impressive was the seemingly loose brushwork employed by the artist. The saturated color stands in stark contrast to the dark background, and the folds, especially in the elbow area, looks realistic and reminiscent of the meticulous study of fabrics done by Zurbaran. The artist paid special attention to convey the vivid blue dress Mary has on in the illustration, especially in the creases, to convey the weightiness of the figure. The white of the collar is almost the same shade as that of his face. The image thus seem to pop out from the background, and El Greco illuminates from within. This self-portrait is perhaps less autobiographical than religious, given its manneristic elements, elimination of a background, as well as the evident Catholic reference. By comparing El Grecos work to that of Murillo and Ribera, we see here that El Greco abandons the soft, idealized depictions of religion, nor does he work exclusively on martyr saints. Instead, El Greco employs his own brand of intellectual realism to convey the strong messages of Catholic Counter-Reformation dogma, and he is successful in delivering direct emotional appeal to Catholic believers in the monumental The Burial of Count Orgaz, but also in this series of apostles where St Luke is one prime example.

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