The religious subject ruled. True enough, there
was portraiture of nobility, and under Philip and Velasquez a
half-monarchical art of military scenes and _genre_; but this was not
the bent of Spanish painting as a whole. Even in late days, when
Velasquez was reflecting the haughty court, Murillo was more widely
and nationally reflecting the believing provinces and the Church
faith of the people. It is safe to say, in a general way, that the
Church was responsible for Spanish art, and that religion was its
chief motive.
There was no revived antique, little of the nude or the pagan, little
of consequence in landscape, little, until Velasquez's time, of the
real and the actual. An ascetic view of life, faith, and the hereafter
prevailed. The pietistic, the fervent, and the devout were not so
conspicuous as the morose, the ghastly, and the horrible. The saints
and martyrs, the crucifixions and violent deaths, were eloquent of the
torture-chamber. It was more ecclesiasticism by blood and violence
than Christianity by peace and love.
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