Venetian vibes: art under Felipe II
In Felipe II the arts found an enthusiastic new patron,
one who tried to bring the best of the High Renaissance
to Spain in the second half of the 16thcentury. Like his
father, Carlos I, Felipe drew artists from Italy and the
Low Countries to a royal court at the height of its
powers. While his approach may have stunted the
organic growth of a ‘Spanish’ style of painting, some
homegrown talent did surface. Luis de Morales was
an Extremaduran painter, dismissed by Felipe as old hat,
who developed Berruguete’s Mannerist style and the
meticulous detail of the Flemish masters. His co-
workers knew him asEl Divinofor the unrelenting
piety of his paintings; the languid, realistPietà(1560s)
painted for Badajoz Cathedral captures his style. Unlike
de Morales, Juan Fernández Navarrete, known in his
day asEl Mudobecause he was mute, enjoyed Felipe’s
favour and did much to decorate the King’s palace at
El Escorial.The best-known Spanish painter of his day,
Navarrete drew on the Venetians’ use of ethereal
backdrops, strong central figures and rich colours.
Works likeBaptism of Christ(1568), painted for Felipe,
expertly gathered these skills. Navarrete studied the
works of Venetian painterTitian, whom the King
commissioned and collected avidly but could never
tempt to actually work at the royal court. Ironically, it
was another foreigner, rejected by Felipe II as overly
expressive, who would become lauded as the first
great painter of truly Spanish art. His given name was
DomenikosTheotokopoulos, but the Spanish came to
know him simply as El Greco.
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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
ThePietà, a popular
subject in Spanish Gothic
and Renaissance art,
depicts the Virgin Mary
clutching the dead body
of Jesus Christ in her lap.
