VIS 20 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Communalism, Cuckold, List Of Scrubs Characters
Baroque Spain/The Dutch Republic:
❏Spain was a monarchy, still claimed that the kings were appointed by God
❏Most powerful country in Europe, received income from the Americas,
❏1556- rebellion
❏Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor)- Velasquez 1656
❏Revolt against spanish monarch, became independent
❏King Philip was not a handsome man but Velasquez made him look good
in the portraits
❏Tend to look at the clothes rather than the face
❏Enormous painting, completely exceptional
❏Usually court art is formal, but this painting is unusual -> debate on what the
painting is about
❏“Portrait of the Spanish royal family”
❏Looks into Velasquez’s studio, he is in the painting shown painting
❏Figures are all portraits
❏“Maids of honor” are usually prestigious
❏Court dwarfs as entertainers
❏Open doorway in the background, where the quartermaster of the queen
❏All important aristocratic positions
❏Philip the fourth and queen mariana in a painting, lit differently from the other
painters, as if they are posing for a painting
❏First interpretation: lady mariana is throwing a tantrum, ladies in waiting try to
calm her down
❏Second: king philip and queen are being painted but we only see their reflection
while everyone is shown as looking at the king and queen
❏Music and poetry seen as fine arts, while painting was regarded as a craft
❏Royal painters had to be aristocrats -> problem for Velasquez, he had to
exaggerate his past
❏Genre scene of everyday life, hung in the king’s private study
❏The Dutch
❏The dutch dominated world trade
❏Amsterdam, center of banking & set exchange rates all over the world
❏Republics with assemblies, largely protestant, ⅓ of dutch belonged to Dutch
Reform church
❏Went through previous catholic churches and cleaned them out -> dutch reform
church was very plain
❏Dutch republic had no king or aristocrats -> middle class were the ones who
bought arts for their homes -> first time art market
❏Variety of subject matter: portraits, landscapes, still-life, genre scenes
