Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Truth, Time, and History

1
Spanish Painting from El Greco to PicassoTruth,
Time, and History

• Childhood

2
Childrens Place In Society

• Considered playthings, moppets, and even dwarfed
  adults
• Until the end of the middle ages, childhood ended
  at age seven
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) introduced the
  idea that children are full human beings

3
Childrens Apparel

• In the eighteenth-century Europe, children began
  to dress differently than adults
• Clothes that they played in and clothes that they
  went to dinner in

4
Child Labor

• Life for middle-class children changed more
  rapidly than it did for poor children, who were
  made to work long hours, often in dangerous
  factories and mines.
• By the nineteenth century, the government stepped
  in to protect children, passing child labor laws
  and setting up schools to provide education.

5
Juan Pantoja de la Cruz

• Court painter to Philip II and Philip III
• Primarily painted the royal family and other
  aristocats
• Painted clothing and jewels with precision and
  exact details
• His best works show an impressive sophistication
  achieved by powerful contrasts of light and
  shadow
• Between 1600 and 1607, he painted 66 portraits of
  39 different members of the royal family.
• Portraits of the royal children were
• Commissioned to record the development of
  younger members of the family
• As a testament to parental love
• Also from the need to formalize future marriages
  between ruling families

6
Pablo Picasso

• Paintings of children date to two great spans of
  times from his early years until he was about
  25, and between ages 40 and 70
• Painted these pictures for his own pleasure they
  were part of his private collection he named his
  Family Gallery
• Revolutionary painter who overturned the most
  widely accepted traditions and practices of art.
• Still studied works from the past and took
  elements from them that would help his own works
• Using his own style, he painted variations on
  works by earlier Spanish artists
• Paid homage to the past art, but also took
  possession of his legacy and imposing on it his
  own unmistakable style

7
The Infantes Don Felipe and Doña Ana (1607)

• This portrait shows Don Felipe, the furture king
  Philip IV, and his older sister Doña Ana
• They possess the self-control and formal bearing
  seen in portraits of adults at court
• Not an image of children but heirs to the Spanish
  throne, destined to rule
• Royal children were depicted as adults decked out
  in elegant clothing and formal poses
• Even though they were small, their childhood
  portraits had to use traits associated with their
  future role as leaders

8
Two Seated Children (Claude and Paloma 1950)

• Picassos portrait of his son Claude and daughter
  Poloma
• He observed them carefully as they did their
  daily routines
• Their childhood was searched and scanned and
  transformed into art.
• Rarely has childhood been so explored on canvas.

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Questions About Portraits

• What questions would you ask these children about
  the life they lead?
• How does their clothing style differ from
  fashions we see today?
• Describe what you think their average day is
  like.
• One painting is an official portrait, the other
  is a fathers painting of his own children. How
  does each artist suggest the relationship of the
  children in these paintings?

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Childhood Questions For Discussion

• Most of us have more pictures of ourselves as
  young children than we do, as we get older. Why
  do we make portraits of children? What varied
  purposes do they serve?
• How do we think about and treat children today?
  What role do they have within contemporary
  society? What forces of society have contributed
  to these changes?
• If you have siblings (brothers and/or sisters or
  even cousins) consider how you might create a
  group portrait. How would you pose yourself along
  with them? What would you wear? What objects
  would you include? In was environment would you
  place the group?

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Works Cited

• http//www.guggenheim.com/artscurriculum/lessons/s
  panish_I_7.php
• http//www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/livingtod
  ay/050322/frills.shtml
• http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhttp//ftp.
  pcworld.com/pub/screencams/childhood-magic.jpgimg
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