PhD Program in Historical studies
At the origin of the painting of the Golden Age: Italian culture and early Spanish Naturalism. The Bartolomé and Vicente Carducho brothers
In the last decades of the sixteenth century, Philip II tried to give life to an austere art, filled with devotional fervor, which translates the teachings of the Catholic Reformation. The sincere piety of the Spanish king, which was based on a deep love for detail, favoured the emergence of Realist painting, which was exciting and sometimes profoundly visionary. Religious themes were represented by artists with an immediacy and attention to daily life that fully complied with the precepts of the Church. The Spanish art of the period is thus characterized by highly realistic traits, derived from Italian Tenebrist Naturalism. Italian and Spanish painters who adhered to a severe program of realism, composure and decorum, converged at the Monastery of El Escorial, summoned by Philip II, who was aware of the importance of proposing a dogmatic and pedagogical art which led to the creation of a realistic style which was in close compliance with that which is referred to as the first Naturalism. Both the Venetian tradition (especially Bassano), known by the Spanish artists of the second half of the sixteenth century through the Venetian masterpieces that enriched the royal collection and the Italian artists who sojourned at the court, among them Federico Zuccari and Luca Cambiaso, which, with their special light and the simplicity of their pure volumes, strongly influenced local painting. The Italian contribution was therefore essential for the new Spanish painting based on truth, concreteness of accessories, human subjects and intense contrasts of light and shadow. The brothers Bartolomé (1560 ca.-1608) and Vicente Carducho (1578 ca.-1638), descendants of a Florentine family, embody the culmination of this first Naturalistic style. After an apprenticeship in Florence with Bartholomew Ammanati, the young Bartolomeo Carducci went to Spain with master Federico Zuccari and upon reaching the Escorial he decided to remain. Combining rigour in detail with elements derived from the painting of Zuccari, inspired, in turn, by Michelangelo and insights drawn from the Venetian tradition, he created masterpieces of great realism such as the Death of Saint Francis (1593, Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga) and the Deposition (1595, Madrid, Museo del Prado), in which the sensitivity of colour reveals careful study of the Venetians. In 1598, the growing reputation of Bartolomé was crowned by his appointment as court painter of Philip III. His brother Vicente, his direct student who also penned works (Dialogues on Painting, 1633), was a prominent figure at court before the arrival of Velázquez. An author of the complex monastic cycles of his time, now unfortunately lost, and paintings such as the elegant Annuntiation (1610, Madrid, Prado), his production in its noble and measured tone blends Venetian color and the preciousness of the robes recall a Tuscan style in a perfect adaptation of Italian models to Spanish needs. In the thirties Vicente executed several altarpieces, such as the solemn Saint Francis of Assisi in front of the Immaculate Conception, filled with devotional fervor (1632 today in Budapest, Magyar Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, image).