Artists

By the circle of Fernando Gallego.

In this depiction of the lamentation of Christ, Fernando Gallego looked to Northern European paintings for inspiration but included distinctly Spanish elements such as a subdued palette and unidealized figures. Unlike Netherlandish artists who were interested in depicting the natural world in minute detail, Gallego concentrated on the pietà's psychological and emotional impact, eliminating extraneous or distracting elements.

The Virgin Mary sits in front of the cross, gazing at her dead son in her lap. On the ground around them are several pebbles, a bone, and a skull. A lance and a rod with attached sponge, two instruments from the Passion, lean perfectly vertically against the cross, which is inscribed with the initials i.n.r.i. Behind the cross a rocky landscape overlooks a Gothic walled town, settled between a body of water and verdant countryside that stretches into the far distance.

Gallego focused on the moment after the Crucifixion when overwhelming anguish gave way to resigned misery, the sentiment evident in the grief-stricken face of the Virgin, flushed and swollen from weeping. Christ's broken and emaciated body, his eyes unseeing, stretches awkwardly across her lap. Their exaggerated and unidealized features intensify the pathos central to the theme of the pietà.

Published in 1864. Plate #11 from Los Proverbios (The Follies)

The Marquesa de Santiago strikes a commanding presence, confronting the viewer directly with her hand assertively on her hip. She stands in front of a landscape of gently sloping hills dotted with cottages made up of rough, tan brushstrokes. Her sheer white lace mantilla veil extends to her knees and she holds a closed fan in her left hand, both traditional accessories of Spanish women in the 1700s and 1800s. The Marquesa was known to wear bold makeup, enough that her acquaintances wrote about it, and here, heavily applied rouge, powder, and lipstick accentuate her features. While other portraitists of this time often flattered or idealized their sitters, Francisco Goya frankly captured the Marquesa’s appearance and confident personality.

The Marquesa, María de la Soledad Rodríguez de los Ríos Tauche, grew up the only child of a well-connected family in Madrid, eventually inheriting the three noble titles of her parents and the wealth that came with those. Married first in 1783 when she was eighteen, then again in 1790 after she was widowed, María was the one who brought greater wealth and status to her husbands. She had estates in Flanders and Spain, two million reales in capital (the Spanish currency used from the 1300s to 1860s), and two million more in silver, jewelry, and other possessions. This portrait, though painted as a pair to her second husband’s, unconventionally touts her own title, Santiago, in the inscription in the lower right, rather than his, San Adrían, which would have been typical for her to adopt as his wife. As the more elite of the couple, she may have decided to commission these portraits from Goya to add to her family’s substantial paintings collection.

From Los Caprichos

Through lively penwork, de Herrera imparted a sense of movement to the substantial figure of the Virgin and the stable, classical pyramid form of the group. The artist's fertile imagination worked quickly; after doing some sketching with black chalk, he applied free-flowing, crisscrossing, tangled threads of ink ranging from the dark squiggles of the Virgin's drapery to the light tracings on the angels' robes below. The fluent washes add drama to the composition.

This painting illustrates the Roman widow Irene nursing Saint Sebastian back to health after he was discovered to be a Christian and shot with arrows by Roman archers. Writhing in pain, Saint Sebastian looks heavenward as Saint Irene pulls arrows from his pierced body. Vicente López y Portaña dynamically composed the figure of Sebastian, with one arm tied above his head and his other arm held by an attendant, in order to more clearly display the wounds on his upper body and to allude to the martyrdom of Christ. Sebastian's bent leg reveals the bleeding gash from which Irene has already removed one arrow. As she leans toward Sebastian's knee, she carefully pulls the saint's flesh in order to extract a second arrow. In the foreground, the depiction of the armor and weapons Sebastian wore as a military captain signals that this event occurred in ancient Rome.

López y Portaña's luscious palette and creamy application of paint contrast with the drama and emotion of this religious story. Like Andrea Lilio's Figures Tending to the Wounded Saint Sebastian, this painting differs from representations that show the Saint bound to a tree or pillar, moments after the attack.

Saint Fernando gazes upward, paying homage to a vision of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child floating on a pillow of clouds surrounded by winged putti. The arched top and the squaring suggest that the artist planned a painted altarpiece.

The quick, loose strokes merely outlining the figures and the broadly applied wash alluding to their volume indicate that this preliminary drawing was made to work out the placement of the various characters. While the artist focused on the poses and gestures of the Virgin, Child, and saint, he ignored other, more intricate details. He simply suggested Jesus' features with a small dot for his eye and a single line indicating hair. Simple circles and arched lines suggest the heads and wings of the putti.

Interior courtyard with a statue of a figure holding a spear and shield on a pedestal. The courtyard has rows of arches and an ornately designed balcony on the second level.

Gift of Weston J. and Mary M. Naef

At the core of this manuscript leaf is an ornate decorative initial, a lavish letter "K" that serves as a visual ode to the virtue of Caritas, or love. The illustration depicts Charity as a richly attired woman, symbolizing the divine nature of God's love. The initial is intricately adorned with elaborate patterns and flourishes, a hallmark of the style associated with the Master of the Cypresses (active in the 1430s), an artist renowned for ornate design.

Believed to be the work of Pedro de Toledo (active in 1434), who was documented as an artist at Seville Cathedral during the 1430s, de Toledo was bestowed the title of "Master" by art historian Diego Angulo Íñiguez (1901–1986) in 1428.

Set against a deep blue backdrop, the letter "K" gleams resplendently in gold, with its intricate curves and lines meticulously rendered. Within the letter, two figures locked in an intimate embrace symbolize profound love and unwavering devotion. Caritas, or Charity, holding a crucifix in her right hand, tenderly extends a singular gold coin to the beggar before her. The intersecting geometric lines elegantly connect three essential elements of the Trinity: Charity's heart, the beggar's staff, and Christ's wound, symbolizing divine salvation through God's boundless charity.

Edition XVII/XXV

Plate 7 from Homenatge à Joan Prats

Edition 300/300

Edition 267/300

From the series "Oda a Joan Miro"

This painting depicts the heavenly vision of Saint Francis of Paola (1416–1507), founder of the Order of Minims, a religious order committed to perpetual abstinence and acts of humility. The saint experiences a vision in which the word “Charitas” (meaning Charity) appears in an aureole of golden light, accompanied by cherubs. The word became the motto of the Minims, and appears on the order’s heraldic crest.

In the background, the saint appears again standing on a shore with two kneeling companions. This scene in the distance refers to a miracle in which Francis calmed a stormy sea and ferried the men across the Straits of Messina on his cloak after they had been refused passage on a ship.

The subject of the painting should not be considered simply in terms of its visionary and narrative elements, but as a representation of faith itself as embodied by Saint Francis of Paola. Elderly and bearded, he is humbly dressed and appears to bear the weight of his calling on his slender walking staff. He gazes at the message borne aloft by the heavenly host with a look of reverent awe and dutiful acceptance. The simplicity of setting, sober tonality, loose brushwork, and harmony of both material and divine presence, are all consistent with Murillo's late style and help to convey a scene of passionate spiritual appeal.

1670s