The Renaissance in

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The Renaissance in

• Spain

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Luis Borrasa St Peter is Walking on the Water
1411-13 Sant Pere, Terrasa
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St Peter is Walking on the Water

• In 1377 Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome and the
  magnificent palace of Avignon became only the
  residence of antipopes. But Avignon continued to
  act as a channel through which Italian Gothic art
  gradually penetrated further and further into the
  rest of Europe. It was in Avignon that Luis
  Borrassá first came into contact with 'court'
  Gothic, in the period around 1400, when this
  style was widely adopted in numbers of countries
  it became in fact an international style founded
  upon all that Borrassá has learned from the
  brothers Serra.
• This altarpiece manifests a mixture of archaic
  technique and new characteristics of the
  International Gothic. The colour technique is
  Byzantine, but the shortening of the boats, the
  less sized figures in the background give some
  feeling of the perspective.

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Luis Dalmau Altarpiece of the Councillors
1445Museu Nacional dArt de Catalunya, Barcelona
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Altarpiece of the Councillors

• Chronologically, the first exponent of the
  Hispano-Flemish style was Luis Dalmau, a native
  of Valencia, who must have been born around the
  year 1400. Though most of his work has been lost,
  the few paintings that survive are of great
  significance.
• In 1443 the City Council of Barcelona
  commissioned an altarpiece (a large panel and a
  predella) for the chapel of the municipal council
  of Barcelona. The painting was signed in 1445.
  Unfortunately, the predella was lost. In the
  Retable of the Councillors his technique, precise
  and painstaking, though not without brilliance
  and even inspiration, embodies various elements
  adapted from Van Eyck. This painting, executed in
  oils, has all the characteristics of the style it
  represents, including the sensation of viewing
  the world through an optical instrument.

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Bernat Martorell St George Killing the Dragon
1430-35Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
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St George Killing the Dragon

• The frightened eyes of the dragon and of the
  horse convey the dramatic qualities of the scene.
  Fright would be unworthy of the saint, his face
  is etherealized and serene. Bones of humans and
  animals are scattered on the ground. The princess
  is to be seen praying on the top of a rock. The
  wavy line of the dragon's tail is practically
  continued by the crevice in the rock. In the
  background, in the middle of civilized, idyllic
  scenery is the royal castle, surrounded by a
  moat, on whose emerald waters swans are swimming.
  The crowd gathered on the balconies and bastions
  of the building watch with excitement to see how
  the fight will end.
• The landscape is extensive. There are two spaces
  depicted in the painting the one further back
  has preserved the homogeneous and decorative
  features of landscapes in the International
  Style, the scene in the foreground is represented
  in a highly expressive manner, with many
  gradations of values. The light is reflected in
  different ways by the grains of sand, by the
  smooth rock, by the dragon's skin and its belly,
  by the metal armour and by the precious stones.
• The principal axis of the composition is
  determined by St George's long spear. In addition
  to this, a single imaginary vertical line
  connects the eyes of the dragon, of the horse and
  of the princess. In the form of a letter V the
  two straight lines flank the bastion of the royal
  castle

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Jaime Huguet Vinzenz Altarpiece c.1458Museu
Nacional dArt de Catalunya, Barcelona
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Vinzenz Altarpiece

• Huguet attempted to distance himself from
  Spanish painting in order to develop his own
  style. His Vinzenz Altarpiece in Sarriá shows
  that he was largely successful in this. Many of
  the pictorial attributes and details of the
  architecture recall Flemish models, but the
  individualistic faces of his figures and the
  spatial composition of his groups indicate that
  he was the first Spanish painter to find his own
  formal concepts - and therefore a "Spanish way"
  to the Renaissance.

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Fernando Gallego Madonna of the Catholic
Kings 1490-95Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Madonna of the Catholic Kings

• This altarpiece was originally in the St Thomas
  Monastery in Avila. On the right of the Madonna
  King Ferdinand V is kneeling at the feet of his
  patron St Thomas. Beside the King the Infant Don
  Juan, behind them the Chief Inquisitor can be
  seen. In the opposite group Queen Isabelle is
  adoring the Madonna with her patron saint, St
  Dominic.
• Gallego worked mainly in Salamanca, where it is
  said he was born, and was the major Castilian
  painter of his period. Gallego's style is sober
  and impassive. His works include a retable
  (c.1475-80) of San Ildefonso in the cathedral of
  Zamora, a triptych of The Virgin, St Andrew and
  St Christopher in the new cathedral of Salamanca,
  and ceiling frescos on astrological subjects in
  the Old Library in the University of Salamanca.

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Bartolomé Bermejo St Dominic enthroned in
Glory 1474-7Museo del Prado, Madrid
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St Dominic enthroned in Glory

• In spite of this Flemish training, Bermejo's
  work leaves us in no doubt concerning his Spanish
  origin. Robust, virile, and dramatic, it is
  characterized by a profound gravity, the
  counterpart of the lyrical refinement so typical
  of the Spanish genius.
• Bermejo was a master of detail. In the
  background of his picture of the Resurrection,
  now in Barcelona, he depicted in an area of
  scarcely more than a few square centimetres, a
  beautiful landscape in which the representation
  of rocks and foliage is as delicate as anything
  by Dürer. But though the effect of light is
  depicted most exquisitely, there is very little
  plasticity in the representation of the face of
  the learned abbot which, in fact, almost merges
  into the radiance of the golden background. Of
  paramount importance to Bermejo was the
  representation of every detail of the embroidered
  cope, the splendid mitre, the amazingly intricate
  Gothic carving on the throne and every vein of
  the marble floor. The total effect of splendour
  makes the painting seem like a lavishly gilt
  chalice or a prelate's vestment that have taken
  several years to embroider rather than an example
  of the art of painting.