Studio: international art (80.1920)

MODERN SPANISH PAINTING

MARCHANDES DE FRUITS
A ONDARROA (BISCAYE) "
BY RAMON DE ZUBIAURRE

in his dream of an art without any limits.
Also they painted " still-life " subjects of
ineffable candour, in which, on cloths of
altar-like purity—village altars, starched
and bedecked with lavender—porcelains and
crystals piously displayed their whiteness
and transparency. And, lastly, there were
the perpetual ex-voto of all their works :
the little piles of green apples—natural
escutcheon of Biscay—which, by dint cf
constant appearance, serve as marks of
authenticity, like the butterfly of Whistler.
And these bowls, these pots, and these
earthenware dishes, vibrating with rusticity,
with their outlines stretching in shadows
blue and golden on the stiff-ironed linen;
and these innumerable blades of grass and
little wild flowers, these wrinkled hands
and faces, these minutely painted costumes,

all wrought with such patient care, as
though in thanksgiving for the universal
goodness and worth of creation. And, as
with the pious Primitives, we find herein
a lively renewal of the Song of St. Francis,
styling himself " brother" of all the
elements and all creatures, and, from
devotion and love, uniting himself with
everything palpitating—even though it
were invisibly—around him. a 0

Valentin, the elder, is the more " reason-
able," the more constructive, of the
brothers. Externally his Primitivism dis-
plays itself with more force than does his
brother's, and he works on his faces with
such minuteness that his paintings might al-
most be taken for masterpieces of engraving.
No, the painter of the Vierge du Chanoine

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