Museo de las Bellas Artes, Seville.
This is a selection of the paintings in the permanent collection of this museum which is considered one of the finest of Spain. There will also be four posts on individual artists.
Most of the art in the museum's collection is religious. We found it a bit too much. But there is an explanation for this.
The conquest of Seville by Ferdinand III the Saint in 1248 gave rise to the gradual transformation of the Muslim city. While Islamic architectural features and artistic techniques continued to exist, the new local culture began to incorporate Christian art. This took the form of mainly religious figurative representations on paintings and sculptures, although it also extended to wall paintings and illuminated manuscripts.
The arrival of artists from the north sowed the seeds for a local school of painting that grew ever stronger as the 15th century progressed, with both Flemish and Italian aesthetics permeating the art of the Iberian Peninsula. The presence in Seville of the Castilian monarchs' court fostered the city's cultural and artistic development. Some of the most important texts of the reign of Alfonso X were composed in Seville. This of course, also explains the large number of churches in the city.
Pedro Nunez de Villavicencio, El Vendedor de Bebidas, 1694
Francisco Polanco, Santiago el Menor, 1640
Francisco Polanco, Santiago el Mayor, 1640
Mattia Preti, Cristo Resucitado en el Genaculo, 1675
Jan Brueghel the Elder made around 100 paintings of paradise-like landscapes, some with and others without a religious theme. Brueghel the Younger also made a series of paintings on this theme, sometimes borrowing elements from his father.
The museum has two paintings by the Younger on this theme.
Jan Brueghel the Younger, El Paraiso Terrenal, 1620
looking closer
Francisco Pacheco, Retrato de dama y caballero orantes, 1623
Juan de Valdes Leal, Finis Gloriae Mundi, 1671-72, (oil on canvas)
A weak light offers a glimpse of the interior of a funerary crypt where mortal remains repose in the death chamber. In the foreground, the raw sight of two decomposing corpses - a bishop and a knight reveal the fragility of life and implacable effects of death.
In the Field above, Christ's wounded hand weighs good deeds and vices practised in life. The vices are symbolised in the left saucer of the balance by different animals, while on the right the good deeds are represented by instruments of penitence and fasting, prayer books and a rosary, crowned by the love of Christ: a heart with the anagram JHS. The inscriptions NI MAS (No More) and NI MENOS (No Less) are a solemn warning that virtue and love must prevail over vices in a person's life.
Juan de Valdes Leal, In the Blink of an Eye, 1671-72, (oil on canvas)
This work is a reminder that death comes inevitably to everyone, in the blink of an eye, stripping away the riches and ephemeral pleasures accumulated in this world. The reflection is an invitation to prepare one's soul for eternal life.
Death is depicted as a skeleton whose piercing gaze interrogates the viewer. Poised to fullfil his mission, the skeleton holds a coffin, shroud and scythe. In a theatrical gesture he extinguishes the flame of life while standing on a globe, an illusion to his victory over earthly life. At this feet, like a vanitas, a collection of valuable objects symbolises the fleeting nature of life and the irrelevance of worldly triumphs - power (whether earthly or spiritual), wealth, wisdom and accolades - in the face of eternity.
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