Following this train of thought one comes upon a curious analogy between Goya and El Greco. It was no accident of changing whim that has made the progressive artist of to-day turn from Velasquez to Goya, and has drawn so many besides artists to admiration of El Greco. It is because both tender to the needs of to-day. Both are artists of expression. They share with Rembrandt the distinction of being the greatest artists of expression that any school can show. Though Goya’s genius is confined to a lower level of expression, it points in principle to the spiritual altitude of El Greco’s. Both are models of suggestion for the artist of to-day, if he is alive to the esthetic and spiritual needs of his age and is striving to express them.
That, after its own period of greatness, it should be thus refertilizing modern art, is the proud distinction of the Spanish School.
| IN THE BALCONY | GOYA |
| COLLECTION OF THE DUKE OF MARCHENA, PARIS | |
A POSTSCRIPT
VERY suggestive of the force and persistence of the Spanish character is the fact that the only Spanish artists of recent years who have become notably distinguished are those who have remained true to the traditions of their School. Academic encouragement has been given to the production of historical pictures, which cover large quantities of canvas but excite little interest. On the other hand, those painters who have acquired a European and American reputation have all based their art on naturalism.
The first of these in order of time was Mariano Fortuny, whose La Vicaria, better known in America as The Spanish Marriage, when it made its first appearance in Paris in 1870, created a sensation. The scene, it will be remembered, is a sacristy, profusely embellished with rococo decorations. The costumes of the figures are those of Goya’s day; the actions and gestures piquantly natural and the characterization of each happily individualized. But the chief charm of the picture lies in the marvelous treatment of the light. Fortuny, after pursuing the academic routine and capturing the Prix de Rome, obtained an engagement to accompany the Spanish troops in a little war with Morocco. The splendor of Southern coloring opened his eyes to the magic of light. Henceforth his pictures became miracles of luminosity. The most powerful were La Vicaria, Choosing the Model and The Rehearsal; all rococo subjects in which the light is splintered into a myriad tiny reflections. But the finer work, in an artistic sense, is to be found in his water-colors. These are executed with extraordinary fluency and expression, marvels of naturalistic characterization, flooded broadly with glowing luminosity. Fortuny lived only five years after his remarkable début, dying in 1874 at the age of thirty-six.
Among those who were influenced by him, the most notable in imitating his virtuosity were Edoardo Zamacois, Antonio Casanova y Estorach and Fortuny’s brother-in-law, Raimundo de Madrazo. On the other hand, the artist who has been most happy in uniting virtuosity with a gift of naturalism is Francisco Pradilla. He has painted decorations full of joie de vivre and the spirit of romance: popular merry-makings, camp-life and scenes along the sea-shore; spontaneous in execution, abounding with zest and aglow with color. Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida has followed in his footsteps, with a longer stride and heavier tread. His works have the zest of Pradilla’s, but neither the refinement of virtuosity nor the versatility and subtlety of color. His naturalism is of the obvious type.