Spanish Painting: From the Golden Age to Modernism

This lavish volume is a comprehensive study of the Spanish Golden Age, a period of cultural and scientific discovery that produced some of the country's greatest music, literature, and architecture. It explores how Spain's emergence as a European power, the construction of El Escorial, the development of Madrid, Toledo, and Seville as centers of intellectual, political, and artistic activity, and the Baroque period gave way to the Rococo after the collapse of the Habsburg empire. It includes 250 reproduced works by major painters of the period, such as El Greco, Ribera, Vela zquez, Zurbara n, Murillo, Ribalta, Goya, and dozens more, and reveals how Spanish painters of the twentieth century were shaped by their Golden Age forebears.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 05 September 2023
Publisher: Prestel

This lavishly packaged volume is destined to become the definitive study of one of the most significant periods in European art history. Coinciding with the rise of the Habsburg dynasty and the expansion of the Spanish Empire, the Spanish Golden Age created a fertile environment for cultural and scientific discovery. Some of the country's greatest music, literature, and architecture were created in the period between the mid-sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—and painting was no exception. Rich in illustrations and fascinating texts, this overview takes a thematic and chronological approach to the era and its later influences. Opening with Spain's emergence as a European power, it explores how developments such as the construction of El Escorial ushered in a new era for painting; how the cities of Madrid, Toledo, and Seville developed as centers of intellectual, political, and artistic activity; and how the Baroque period gave way to the Rococo after the collapse of the Habsburg empire. Every major painter of the period is included here, with 250 gloriously reproduced works by El Greco, Ribera, Velázquez, Zurbarán, Murillo, Ribalta, Goya, and dozens more. A final chapter reveals how Spanish painters of the twentieth century, such as Picasso and Dali, were shaped by their Golden Age forebears.

Weight: 2972g
Dimension: 304 x 357 x 38 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783791379463