Anna Morozova
Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
The Spanish Art was badly known in Europe of the 17th–18th centuries. Spanish painting was understood only as the variant of Italian painting. It is interesting to analyze, if the national character of Spanish art was comprehended by theorists and historians.
In 1633 V. Carducho published his “Dialogs about Painting” in Madrid. The peaks of perfect beauty for him are Michelangelo and Rafael. V. Carducho didn’t try to find national artistic specific features of Spanish painting.
In 1649 in Sevilla the treatise by F. Pacheco “The Art of Painting” was published. F. Pacheco highly appreciated many Spanish masters, and most of all — his pupil D. Velazquez, but the criterion of artistic achievements for him also was Italian art.
About 1675 the treatise by Spanish painter and theorist of Art J. Martinez “The practical Reasonings about Noble Art of Painting…” was published. J. Martinez divided not Spanish and Italian Art, but old and modern. He was not interested in Spanish artistic special features, but by qualitative level of national Spanish painting. He showed that this level was as high as the level of Italian painting. Developed national self-awareness of J. Martinez enabled him to write the history of national art, to be proud of its achievements, but didn’t give him the possibility to understand its originality. It was it in the text, but the author couldn’t and didn’t want to see it!
At the beginning of the 18th century the thesis of A. Palomino “The Museum of Painting and the School of Optic” was published. The history of Spanish art is represented in detail. But the attempt to show the national features of Spanish art was not made by A. Palomino. He was interested in qualitative level of Spanish art. He thought that this level was higher than European standard of his time — Italian painting.
In biographies of certain masters he constantly stressed their mastership in the imitation of nature. Instinctively he was inclined to regard naturalism as a national specific feature of Spanish art, which he, in spite of his classical credo, fully appreciated.
In 1800 “The Historical Dictionary” by C. Bermudez, with its detailed description of life and art of Spanish masters (but according to old Italian criteria), was published. So for Spanish authors by the end of 18th century the Italian art remained the standard of artistic perfection.