Studio: international art (29.1903)

The Work of Zuloaga

MODERN SPANISH PAINTER:
IGNACIO ZULOAGA. BY HENRI
FRANTZ.

To the fairly well-informed observer it is
clear, beyond all doubt, that the great tradition
of the Spanish school—that to which we owe
Velasquez, Murillo, and Zurbaran—was broken in
the nineteenth century, after the death of that
great artist Goya. With the departure of this
original and powerful personality Spanish painting
underwent a crisis from which it is only just
beginning to emerge. Forgetting all that once
constituted its force and its greatness, neglecting
that vigour of observation, that acute perception
of Nature, that grandiose power of execution which
delight one in the works of the masters I have
named, the painting of modern Spain wandered

aimlessly about in all sorts of academic shallows,
paying heed to nought but the dainty and the
pretty, or to the irritating type of sham historical
painting practised by Paul Delaroche. Thus
Pradilla, despite all his ability and knowledge,
despite his patient attempts at reconstitution,
which gave his works the appearance of an
exhibition of tinsel and old costumes, altogether
failed to revive the past. Quite factitious, quite
undeserved, too, is the reputation of Bulliure,
who is simply over-emphatic when he attempts
to be impressive. Nor is Villegas, despite all
his cleverness, an artist of originality. As for
artists of the type of Madrazzo, assuredly it was
not for them to lift Spanish painting from the
academic rut into which it was sinking deeper
day by day.

To realise fully the utter poorness of the modern

"danseuses espagnolbs" by i. zuloaga

XXIX. No. 125.—August, 1903. . 159