Bilbao Fine Arts Museum Opens Exhibition on the Splendor of the Renaissance in Aragon |
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| Written by rubin |
| Wednesday, 17 June 2009 05:20 |
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In painting, the panels Martyrdom of St. Engracia by Bartolomé Bermejo, in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum collection, the Descent attributed to Bartolomé Bermejo, in tandem with his disciple Martín Bernat, and The retable of the Holy Cross of Blesa, by Miguel Ximénez and Martín Bernat, are three fine examples of the heights these maestros were capable of. The second section begins with a group of works that evidence the transition from the Gothic scheme of things to Renaissance ideals in a synthesis of the Flemish and Italian idioms. Contributions from the Museum of Zaragoza collection mean that the superb sculptor Damián Forment, one of the great figures of the Spanish Renaissance, is the artist best represented here. Particularly interesting are the St. Onuphrius and two Virtues, all in alabaster. In the early decades of the 16th century, the large group of sculptures by Forment and his disciples, together with others by contemporaries like Frenchman Gabriel Joly, the Italian Juan de Moreto and Aragon-born Gil Morlanes the Younger, consolidated the new style of the golden age of art in Aragon. Mostly executed in wood and alabaster, the sculptures and reliefs are generally polychromed pieces taken from retables. They undoubtedly set the standards and guidelines for the following generation. Accompanying them are several works by the painter Jerónimo Cósida, one of the finest artists in Aragon at the time. After some early works influenced by Raphael, Cósida’s Italianate style was particularly appreciated for its beautiful use of colour and the delicate modelling of the figures. Two Italian artists, Tomás Peliguet and Pietro Morone, well acquainted with the works of both Raphael and Michelangelo, introduced full-blown Renaissance forms in painting in Aragon through their contributions to retables and mural painting projects. 
From 1570 on, the Rome-inspired new classicism appeared in the
late stage of sculpture in Aragon. A major figure here was Basque sculptor
Juan de Anchieta, who, in his monument entitled Christ for the church of
the Hospital de Gracia and his Calvary, in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum
collection, synthesized the treatment of the nude as developed by
Michelangelo with the emotional expressionism of Juan de Juni. Anchieta
was an excellent maestro in the carvings for Christ Crucified, which
ushered in the shift in the models used for this iconography in art in
Aragon. The interest of Martín de Gurrea y Aragón, Duke of Villahermosa, in the genre of the portrait is typical of Renaissance civilization. Highly cultured, a collector of antiquities and paintings, in his time in the Low Countries, Villahermosa persuaded painters Paul Scheppers and Roland de Moys to work for him in Aragon. The works of these two Flemish artists, who had previously visited Italy, signalled the main guidelines for painting in Aragon as the Renaissance drew to a close. Today, the outstanding Bilbao Fine Arts Museum collection has more than seven thousand works, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper and the applied arts ranging in time from the 12th century to the present day. Besides many major early and Old Master works, it also has a broad sampling of modern and contemporary art, placing particular emphasis on paintings from the Spanish and Flemish schools, together with a major collection of works by Basque artists. Visit : www.museobilbao.com/ Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
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