The Spanish Line: Drawings from Ribera to Picasso
13 October - 15 January, 2012
Courtauld Institute Of Arts Gallery - Admission Charge
Organised by the IMAF Centre for Drawings at The
Courtauld Gallery.
Supported by the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica: the
International Music and Art Foundation; Farah and Hassan Alaghband; The Doris
Pacey Charitable Foundation.
The word 'draughtsmanship' evokes Italy, the Renaissance, the talents of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael da Sanzio. The influence and skill of these geniuses did not take long to spread to neighbouring Spain. By the early 1500s, artists like Juan de Juanes (Vicente Juan Macip) c 1510 – 1597, were producing anatomic drawings comparable to those of Michelangelo. De Juanes’s work Two Studies for Saint Stephen taken to his martyrdom is included in The Spanish Line: Drawings from Ribera to Picasso, currently at the Courtauld Gallery.
The Spanish Line is the first substantial exhibition of Spanish draughtsmanship to take place in London, and reflects the growing scholarly interest in the subject. It is arranged in broadly chronological order, emphasising various aspects of Spanish draughtsmanship. Spanish painters drew inspiration from Dutch and Flemish artists whose work was most readily available through prints. (Press Copy)
The themes for most of the earlier drawings spring from Christian iconography. Alonso Berruguete (1488-1561) produced The Holy Family in 1537, and Juan Fernandez Navarette (1538 – 1579) produced The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine in 1558. By the 1600s, secular themes were becoming fashionable. Allegorical group on a pedestal (c. 1660 – 70) by Sebastian de Herrera Barnuevo (1617-1671) resembles a study for a classical statue, while The Nine Worthies of Antiquities (c. 1638), attributed to Matias de Torres (1635 – 1711) is a collection of nine drawings of historical luminaries (both real and mythical) such as Alexander the Great, Julius Ceaser, and King Arthur.
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| Francisco Pacheco (Seville 1564 - 1644) Saint Mark Pen and brown ink and darker ink heightened with white body colour, on medium brown-toned paper, Inscribed lower edge centre 23 de octubre 1632 362 x 221 mm © The Courtauld Gallery, London |
By the seventeenth century, Spain was entrenched in the Counter Reformation, a time of almost hysterical religiosity. Man finds redemption only through suffering was the message of studies such as Man tied to a tree and a figure resting (c. 1630), by Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), and St Francis embracing the Crucified Christ (1668), by Bartolemē Esteban Murillo. Here, I draw attention to St Mark (23 October, 1632), by Francisco Pacheco (1564-1644). According to Zahira Yelizi, author of the Spanish Line catalogue, it was the aim of the artist to draw like Raphael – and did he succeed? The drawing is beautiful; the saint sitting under a tree, clutching his book and pen, raising his head to heaven as he seeks divine inspiration for his task of writing the Gospel. This ‘divine light’ is depicted by touches of white body colour that effectively highlights areas of the drawing against the pen and ink lines, and brown tones of the paper.
The exhibition includes Cantar y Bailar (Singing and Dancing), c. 1819, an ink painting by that greatest of all Spanish artists, Francisco de Goya (1746 – 1848). Two drawings by Pablo Picasso, the enchanting Pigs (1906), and the neo-classical Woman Seated (1923), add the touch of modernity – but come and see these lovely drawings yourself. They are on display until January 15, 2012.
Mary Phelan, 2011