Leadership || Instructional Resources: Spanish Art

National Art Education Association

Instructional Resources: Spanish ArtAuthor(s): Anne Henderson and Mary Ellen WilsonSource: Art Education, Vol. 48, No. 4, Leadership (Jul., 1995), pp. 25-32Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193545 .

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INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES

SPANISH ART~~~~~~~~~~~~~~p

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Bartolome Esteban Murillo (Spanish; 1617-1682) The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1667/1670, oil on canvas; 93 x 102 3/4 in. (236.3 x 261 cm). National Gallery of Art,

Washington, Gift of the Avalon Foundation.

JULY 1995 / ART EDUCATION E



SPANISH ART This Instructional Resource Section will introduce students to Spanish art through works that focus on the human figure in a

narrative context. Students will explore human relationships; the way a painting tells a story; and how the artist uses elements of art to help tell the story.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1667/1670 BARTOLOME ESTEBAN MURTIJO (Spanish 1617-1682)

GRADES K-3 I. GOAL: To introduce students to narrative painting and the elements of art I. OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to: * tell the story as represented bythe painting * identifyfamilyrelationships * identify primary and secondary colors * findvariousshapesinthepainting m. BACKGROUND: Murillo was one ofthe leading artists in Seville during the second

half of the seventeenth century, when Seville was the leading intellectual and artistic center of Spain. In 1627, at the age of ten, he was orphaned and placed in the care of his sister and her husband. Murillo's brother-in-law apprenticed himto Juan del Castillo, a conservative established painter and a relative of Murillo's mother. By the age of fifteen, Murillo was on his own selling painings in the artists' stalls of the marketplace in Seville. By 1645, he received his first major commission from a Franciscan monastery, which then led to other commissions from area monasteries, churches, hospitals, and individual patrons.

The Return ofthe Prodigal Son was commissioned about 1666 by the Church of the Hospital of Charity, belonging to the Brotherhood of the Holy Charity. As directed bythe Brotherhood, Murillo painted a total of eight pictures, all representing themes ofhealing and charity. This specific parable, or moral story, was chosen to represent the act of clothing the needy.

The story of the prodigal son, illustrating repentance and forgiveness, is the parable of a man and his two sons found in Luke 15: 11-32. The younger son received his inheritance and traveled to another country, where he squandered his wealth. When there was a great famine in the land, he became a servant to a wealthy citizen ofthe country, who sent him into the field to feed swine. Fminally he was reduced to eating corn husks leftbythe pigs.

Repenting his former extravagance, the boy retumed home and offered himself to his father as a servant His father had compassion and prepared afeast

The older son, who had loyally served his father, questioned why his delinquentyounger brother was being welcomed with merrynaking. The father then reiterated the parable's message, saying, 'Thybrotherwas dead, and is alive again."

Murillo illustrated all the details ofthe story's climax--the homecoming, just before the older brother arrived at the feast In front

ofthe family's mansion, the father, with a gesture offorgiveness, embraces his son. The son's former riches are evident in the brocade of his tattered gannent Atthe left, the fatted calf is led in and, on the right, a servant bears a traywith the new clothing and sandals. Another servant stands nearby, holding the ring. Murillo added the little dog leaping up to greet his long-lost master.

IV. INSIRUCTIONALSIRAIGIES: 1. Observation: Tell the story ofthe prodigal son to the students. What parts ofthe

story has Murillo chosen to depict? How do you know the son lost all of his money, and how does he seem to feel? Is he being welcomed home? What details in the image tell you that?

2. VisalAnalysis: Review the primay colors. Ask students to look for shades and

tints ofthem in the painting.Where can you find diagonal lines? What geometric shape do the bodies ofthe father and son make? Where are two other triangle/pyramid shapes?

3. Interpretation: Howdoesthe artistportray forgiveness, love, and happiness?

Discuss the figures and their expressions. Do the colors add to the emotion ofthe story? Are the colors bold and vivid, or are they subdued and gentle?

4.Judgment Is this the part ofthe storyyou would depict ifyou were the artist? V.ACVIWmES: * Have the students act outthe painting. What conversations

would be going on in the various groups? * Ifyouweretellingthisstorywithimagesandpeoplefromlife

today, howwould you show the people? Whatkinds of things would you change? add?

* While this painting expresses the infailing love a parentfeels for a child, its role in the Hospital of Charity was to represent the charity of clothing the needy. Murillo's other paintings for the hospital represented feeding the hungry and healing the sick Have students think of stories or activities in life today, such as the operation of soup ldtchens and homeless shelters, that demonstrate these charities.

VI. EVALUJATION: Can the students identify the most important elements ofthe story?

BY. Anne Henderson, Senior Educatorfor School Programs, National Gallery of Art.

ART EDUCATION / JULY 1995



INSTRUCTIONAL

think of stories or activities in life today, such as the operation of soup kitchens and homeless shelters, that demonstrate these charities.

VI. EVALUATION: Can the students identify the most important elements of the stoty?

REFERENCES Brown, J. (1992). The Golden Age ofPainting in Spain. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Brown, J. & Mann, R G., (1990). Spanish Paintings ofthe Fieenth through Nineteenth Centuries. Washington, D.C.: National Galley of Art

Museo delPrado. (1982). BartolomeEstebdnMuwillo. (Exhibition catalogue). London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

BY: Anne Henderson, Senior Educatorfor School Programs, National Gallery ofArt.

Family of Saltimbanques, 1905 PABLO PICASSO (Spanish, 1881-1973)

GRADES 4-6 I. GOAL: To examine a painting in which color and composition suggest

mood and explore human relationships. H. OBJE0CTVES: Students will be able to: * identify the roles of the various circus performers * select details that illustrate the different characters'feelings * analyze the painting's color scheme * find repeated shapes and patterns * locate and explain possible reasons for the artists obvious

compositional changes. mI. BACKGROUND: Pablo Picasso, one ofthe most dynamic and influential artists of

our century, achieved success in graphic arts, sculpture, and ceramics as well as in painting. He experimented with a number of different artistic styles during his long lifetime. Family ofSaltimbanques was completed relatively early in his career.

Bomrn in Malaga on the southern coast of Spain in 1881, Picasso was exposed to art from a very young age, as his father was a painter. After brilliantly passing the entrance requirements for the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona at the age of fifteen, he went on to the Royal Academy in Madrid during the winter of 1896-1897. However, Picasso soon became bored with academics and set himself up as an independent artist Many of his friends among the young intellectuals of Barcelona were going to Paris to study, and in October of 1900 Picasso persuaded his parents to let him join them. In Paris he had the opportunity to study the work of other painters including the impressionists and post-impressionists.

Although Picasso benefited much from the artistic atmosphere in Paris, he was lonely, unhappy, and terribly poor. During this period Picasso's sympathy for outcasts of society was reflected in his art, both in his subject matter of blind beggars and destitute families and in his gloomy blue color schemes. As his personal affairs gradually improved, his palette became somewhat lighter. In 1904 to 1905, when he painted Family ofSaltimbanques, Picasso chose predominately blues, beiges, and reds, but they are subdued colors-having been mixed with white or black -and the sense of melancholy remains. This scene of circus performers was his most significant work to date. The name comes from the Italian words saltare, meaning "to leap" and banco, "bench." Saltimbanques were the lowest order of acrobats; Picasso pictured them as vagabonds with simple props in an empty, deserflike landscape. Other artists, such as the early eighteenth- century painter in Paris, Antoine Watteau, had previously portrayed the theme of saltimbanques.

Picasso's painting was inspired by a group of performers he and

his colleagues befriended at Cirque Medrano, which had quarters near the artist's studio in Montmartre. Picasso was particularly drawn to the circus people, many ofwhom were Spanish. Their agility and pursuit ofthe art ofillusion delighted him, and their gypsylike lives appealed to the artist who himself searched for new horizons.

Picasso identified most closely with the clowns, those performers who masked their true selves with costumes. In fact, Picasso pictured himself as aharliequin in Family ofSaltimbanques. Other individuals in the troupe can be recognized as members of Picasso's circle. Ithas been suggested that the red clown resembles the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and the tall boy with the barrel, the writerAndre Salmon. Anotherwriter, MaxJacob, is perhaps represented as the short acrobat in blue, and the lady in the hat looks like Picasso's girl friend, Femanade Olivier.The young girl maybe Raymonde, a child whom Femande and Picasso briefly adopted but whom Olivier returned to the orphanage over the objections ofthe artist and his poet friends.

This incident may account for the grouping of individuals in the painting. The red clown and acrobats are lost in their own thoughts and glance disapprovingly toward the woman, who sits alone, while the harlequin reaches outto the child behind his back. In his deft representations ofthe various human beings, Picasso manages to portray not only the lifestyle of the real saltimbanques but also the melancholy mood of his own friends in this sad, even cruel circumstance.

Picasso's huge canvas (83 3/4" x 90 3/8') was a considerable investment for the struggling artist and may explain why he repainted the subject several times, one on top of the other. X-rays reveal the figures positioned differently in earlierversions. Some of Picasso's changes, such as the woman's shoulders and hat, the color of the child's ballet slippers, the red clown's missing leg, and the harlequin's top hat can still be glimpsed in the final painting.

IV. INSIRUCIIONALSIRATEGIES: 1. Observaion: Explain the name of the painting. Identify the different performers.

Discuss their setting. Tell about Picasso's circle offriends in Pads. Which roles are they taking in the picture?

2. VisualAnalysis: What kind of ageometric shape do the figures form? What makes

your eye move from one part ofthe canvas to the other? Chose a color with many variations, such as red, and explain how pigments are mixed to make different hues and many pale tints and dark shades.

3. Interpretalion: What do peoples'glances in the painting tell you abouttheir

relationships? How does body language play a role? Is the grouping of figures significant?

4.Judgment:

JULY 1995 / ART EDUCATION



I

Pablo Picasso (Spanish; 1881-1973) Family of Saltimbanques, 1905, oil on canvas; 83 3/4 x 90 3/8 in. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Chester Dale Collection.



El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) (Spanish; 1541-1614) Laocon, c. 1610/1614, oil on canvas; 54 1/8 x 67 7/8 in. (137.5 x 172.5 cm). National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection.

I



Do you think Picasso drew more than one set of meanings from the image of circus performers? Why?

V. ACVIIMES: * Make up a line of dialogue for each of the characters thatwill

give a clue to their feelings. * Pose classmembersinthe exactpositions of the

saltimbanques. Discoverwhich positions are natural and comfortable and which have been altered to help the artists composition.

* Identify the major colors used in the painting. Explain why they lend a feeling of sadness. Then trace the picture and paint it in different colors to create a happy scene.

VI. EVALUATION: Can students recognize the mood of a painting from compositional

clues without knowing the facts behind its creation?

REFERENCES Carmean, E. A (1980). Picasso, The Saltimbanques (Exhibition catalogue). Washington,

D.C.: National Gallery ofArt Raboff,E. (1982). Pablo Picasso [Artfor Children Series]. NewYork Harper and Row. (for

children) Richardson,J. (1991).A Life ofPicasso. NewYork: Random House. Wertenbaker, L (1967). The World ofPicasso. NewYork Time-Life. (for reproductions)

BY:MaryEllen Wilson, Coordinatorfor VolunteerDocents and School Tours, National Gallery ofArt.

Laocoon, c. 1610/1614 EL GRECO (DOMENIKOS THEOTOKOPOULOS) (Spanish, 1541-1614)

GRADES 7-9 I. GOAL: To understand a picture based on mythology, and to

discover ways in which the artist's cultural heritage and artistic style shaped his representation of the subject matter.

II. OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to: * discuss the story of Laocoon * analyze the compositional elements of the painting * recognize El Greco's distinctive technique * explain the political and religious climate of the times. III. BACKGROUND: Laocoon illustrates an episode form the mythological stories

in Virgil's Aeneid, an epic poem that starts with the Trojan War. Laoco6n, a son of Troy's King Priam, was a priest of Apollo. For ten long years, the Greeks had been at war with the Trojans, hoping to win back Helen, the wife of their king Menelaus. When Ulysses directed the Greeks to build a wooden horse, fill it with soldiers, and leave it outside the city as a false gesture of defeat, Laocoon warned the Trojans to beware the gift. He flung his spear into the wooden side of the horse to prove it was hollow, thereby desecrating an object the Greeks had dedicated to the goddess of war, Minerva. The gods sent great serpents from the sea to strangle Laocoon and his two sons. Perhaps the figures on the right side of the painting are the gods watching justice exacted. A small horse is highlighted in the center of the picture. The city beyond is not an imaginary Troy but a view of Toledo, Spain, the place in which the artist El Greco painted this work, his only surviving treatment of a mythological theme.

El Greco ('The Greek"), who was born on the island of Crete in 1514, began his career as a painter of religious icons in the Byzantine tradition. Then, traveling to Venice, he picked up the rich colors, free brushwork, and use of light and shadow practiced by Titian, Tintoretto, and other artists of that city. Next El Greco visited Rome, where he admired and incorporated the techniques of Michelangelo and the Central Italian mannerist painters. There, he also saw the famous Hellenistic statue of Laocoon and his sons, which had been unearthed in 1506. This sculpture became the virtuoso image that influenced El Greco's own later interpretation.

By 1577 El Greco reached Spain. When his emotional,

mystical style of elongated figures and strong contrasts of light and color was not particularly appreciated at court, he settled in Toledo, the seat of the archbishop, and received many religious cor.missions at a time when the Catholic Church was attempting to stem Protestant revolt and reinforce belief in its doctrines. El Greco's powerful images sustained the importance of the sacraments, the Virgin, and the saints. While it is impossible to know the original intent of this work, it has been speculated that perhaps Laocoon not only tells a powerful tale of retribution in Greek mythology, but also may suggest that dangers lay in wait for those who strayed form the path of the Church's teachings during this tumultuous period in history. Laocoon may also serve as an example of Christian rmartyrdom.

IV. INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: 1. Observation: Review the myth of Laocoon. Determine which parts of the

story are illustrated in the painting. Discuss foreground, middle ground, and background, placement of figures, and compositional details. Decide whether this spatial organization compresses or opens up the scene portrayed.

2. Visual Analysis: How do the lines of the snakes add dramatic impact? Which

figures provide examples of foreshortening? Elongation? Consider the colors El Greco has chosen: Are they representational? Evocative? Do they support the story?

3. Interpretation: Do facial expressions/body movements/color convey the

emotion of the scene? Explain the effectiveness of each. How does the artist's organization of space affect the mood?

4. Judgment: Knowing the facts of the story, what kind of lesson is the

painting attempting to teach? How might this be related to the position of the Catholic Church in Spain during this era?

V. ACTIVITIES: * Paint or draw a scene in which the horse dominates the

picture instead of being a small detail. Observe how the focus of the image is changed.

* Compare photos of Toledo and the Laoco6n statue with El Greco's painting, to see how close he came to reality.

* Take another mythological painting related to the Trojan War, such as Claude Lorrain'sJudgment of Paris, and compare the different ways mythological stories, with different historical

ART EDUCATION / JULY 1995



INSTRUCTIONAL _i 6 1 I n I ~ E

aspects, are interpreted. * Rewrite the story of the Trojan horse with a

different ending. VI. EVALUATION: Can students apply the techniques of visual analysis learned

in studying Laocoon to another mythological painting and discuss that picture's subject matter, artistic style, and message?

REFERENCES Brown, J. & Mann, R G. (1990). Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through

Nineteenth Centuries. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. Hamilton, E. (1942). Mythology. New York: Grosset and Dunlap. Mann, R G. (1986). El Greco and His Patrons. NewYork: Cambridge University

Press. Virgil. (1947).Aeneid. NewYork: E. P. Dutton and Company.

BY: Mary Ellen Wilson, Coordinatorfor VolunteerDocents and School Tours, National Gallery ofArt.

Bartolome Sureda y Miserol, c. 1803/1804 FRANCISCO DE GOYA(Spanish, 1746-1828)

GRADES 10-12 I. GOAL To introduce students to portraiture and the perceptive quality of

Goya's art II OBJECTVES: Students will be able to: * lookforpsychological characterization of the sitter'spersonality * analyze the function of portraiture. m. BACKGROUND: Francisco de Goyawas one of Spain's greatest painters and an

internationally influential printmaker duing the late eighteenth and earlynineteenth centuries. He was bom on March 30,1746, in avillage nearSaragossa. Hisfather, agider offrames and statues, and his mother, who was of minor nobility, allowed Goya atthe age offourteen to work with an Aragonese artist at the local art academy. After traveling to Italy in the late 1760s and abriefretun to Saragossain 1771, Goya moved to Madrid and in 1775 was working atthe RoyalTapestry Factory where he made cartoons (fulsized designs thatfunctioned as patterns) for tapestries. Early in his career, Goya also made graphic works; his first serious prints were published in July 1778.

Goya's skill as an artistwas widely recognized with his appointment as deputy director ofthe San Fernando Academy in Madrid in 1785. The following year, Goya began his long association with the royal family when he was appointed painterto King Charles III, and subsequently as fist painter to Charles IV and Ferdinand VII.

When he was forty-six, Goya suffered from a mysterious illness that lefthim permanently deaf Hiswork after this time reflects an expressiveness and introspection that may have grown from his isolation. Especially after losing his hearing, he mayhave perceived the political events of the time, such as the turmoil ofthe Napoleonic invasion ofSpain from 18081814, more acutely. Goya's prints and paintings reflecthis criticism of war, arrogance of power, and abuses to humankind, as seen in his print series Los Desastres de la Guerm, Los Caprichos, and LosDisparates.

Goya's skill as a portraitistwas widely recognized during his lifetime. His firstimportantportraitcommissions date to 1783 and came from the chief minister, Condo de la Floridablanca, and the king's brother, the Infante Don Luis. These works for the royal court increased his popularity among Madrid's society, who wanted their portraits painted by the artist His earlyportraits were dignified, elegant, and usually executed in pastel tones. After his illness, hisworks often probed the character of his subjects, whom he usually spotlighted against dark, shadowed backgrounds.

Goya's 1803/1804 portrait ofBatolome Sureda shows an informal and casual glimpse ofhis friend and fellow artist Sureda studied art in

Pama and moved to Madrid to continue his studies at the San Ferando Academy. Sureda's skill as a draftsman and administratorwas discovered byAugustin de Bethancourt, the great Spanish engineer and mechanical designer atthe Academy. Sureda traveled with Bethancourt to England, where Sureda learned the new method of aquatint printmaking. Sureda brought this innovative graphic technique backto Spain and shared itwith Goya.

In 1800 the Spanish goverment sent Sureda to France to study the manufacture of textiles and porcelain. There he married a French woman, Thirse Louise Chapronde SaintAmand, and they returned to Spain together in September 1803. Two years later he was appointed director of Spain's famous porcelain works at Buen Retiro. Under his leadership and expertise, a new type of porcelain was produced which restored the quality and finances of the operations atthe factory. Followingthe return of the Bourbon dynastyto the Spanish throne in 1814, Suredawas appointed director of the RoyalTextile Factory. After 1821, he was the director of several royal and scientific institutions? including the royal glass and ceramic factories. In 1829, he retired from royal service and retuned to his native Mallorca

This painting of Sureda, which is a companion piece to the portrait of his wife (also in the National Gallery ofArt), was mostlikely completed just after the couple moved to Spain from Paris. The threequarter length portrait depicts Suredawearing a dark gray coatwith silver buttons, casuallyleaningwith one arm on aledge, holdinghis high- crowned black hat with a vivid red lining. His other arm rests on his hip, emphasizing a relaxed pose ofthe type then interationally popular. By wearing the latest Parisian style of clothing and sporting the up-todate haircut, "a la Brutus," Sureda conveys his position among high-fashion, aristocratic, Spanish society.The white cravatwith highlights of red and the blue-and-white striped waistcoat frame his face and draw the viewer's eye to meet Sureda's own dreamygaze. Sureda's pose suggests he has paused for a few moments and is lost in his own thoughts as Goya shows the physical likeness ofthe man, butalso suggests his spirit

Goya created a dark, warm background for Sureda's portrait With skill and attention to details on the face, Sureda's personality is revealed: thoughtful, reflective, with a mischievous glint There are shadows across the youthful face as the lightfalls from above, and there is a hint of a beard on his slightly ruddy complexion. Goya's brushwork through the rest ofthe portrait is quick and loose.

IV. INSTRUCIIONALSTIRAIEGIES: 1. Observation: Describe Sureda's pose, style of clothing, and hair. What impression

do they create? Note the setting and background of the portrait- generalized, and warm, yet dark Why might the artist choose a ull,

JULY 1995 / ART EDUCATION



Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828) Bartolome Sureday Miserol, c. 1803/1804, oil on canvas; 47 1/8 x 31 1/4 in. (119.7 x 79.3 cm). National

Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P. H. B. Frelinghuysen in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. H. 0. Havemeyer.



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Leadership || Instructional Resources: Spanish Art