Art in Granada and Granada in Art

This is a key work in the introduction of the Renaissance aesthetics in Granada. As impressive as its stature is the rich polychromy in which the gold and the classic sgraffito themes stand out.

This work is a clear example of what was learned by artists who traveled to Italy to complete their training.

The Virgin is heavily influenced by the classical Roman models reworked by Italian sculptors such as Donatello.

Just looking at this painting is enough to tell us that its author had firsthand knowledge of Italy, the ruins of ancient Rome, and the ways of the great Renaissance artists, Michelangelo and Raphael.

In this Immaculate Conception, Sanchez Cotan follows the iconographic guidelines established by Francisco Pacheco in "The Art of Painting", according to which the Virgin appears surrounded by symbols of the Litany of Loreto, which make reference to her glories and virtues.

Pedro de Raxis would be one of the artists to introduce Baroque naturalism, still in its infancy. In this work the keys of theatricality and artifice that would distinguish this movement can be observed.

In this painting Cano showed that chromatic economy should not be an obstacle to creating a great work thanks to the wealth of shades of the same color. Alongside this, the sensation of movement powerfully draws the attention of the beholder.

Cano's classicism is evident in this head which was created in "Roman" style. The descriptive values in this sculpture, with its many different facets, are complemented by a polychromatic finish which enhances the details.

The degree of collaboration between Alonso Cano and Pedro de Mena when they created the sculptures in the transept of the Santo Ángel Custodio church was such that even today it has not been possible to determine which parts each of them did.

Out of all of Cano's iconographic subjects, the Immaculate Conception was the most note-worthy, in which the outline of the image is adapted to a closed spindle-shaped profile.

Along with Pedro Atanasio Bocanegra, Juan de Sevilla was one of the most prominent disciples of Cano. Traditionally it has been considered that the effigy of the cleric in this Juan de Sevilla painting is the portrait of Alonso Cano.

This is the only known canvas signed by Pedro de Moya. Moya also was influenced by Cano's subjects, which is evident in the group formed by Jesus and the Virgin.

Pedro de Mena would be one of the great sculptors of his time. He was a great creator of types. He popularized pairs of busts consisting of a Virgin Dolorosa and an Ecce Homo; José de Mora would also do this.

Like Cano, Risueño would dominate painting, sculpture, and altar art. He popularized sculptures from polychromatic fired clay, which endowed them with the softness and movement typical of the eighteenth century.

Larrocha was one of the local painters who was seduced by the technique and how Fortuny worked. He lived in Granada for two years. Together with Gómez Moreno, he would be one of the few outstanding painters in Granada in the second half the nineteenth century.

Rusiñol arrived in Granada attracted by the evocative history of the city, and assembled around him a group of local artists with whom he painted numerous enclaves of the city and its surroundings, such as this garden in the Palacio del Cuzco in the town of Viznar.

The Alhambra wielded great drawing power for local painters as well. In this corner of the Alhambra, Lopez Mezquita was especially interested in studying the image reflected on the surface of the water.

He was concerned with capturing the effects of light, in the case of this painting he leaves us with a study of night light.

This is one of the best-known of the Rodríguez-Acosta nudes of a symbolic nature. Two more are kept in the museum: "Nude with blanket" and "Nude with crystal ball."

This work, with its large dimensions and huge compositional complexity, was made when he was 27. He presented it at several exhibitions, winning a prize in Buenos Aires.

González de la Serna assimilated cubist postulates as demonstrated by this work which incorporates the technique of "paper collage." The incorporation of musical scores is very common in his compositions.

The return to Granada marked the beginning of a period of great creativity for Ángeles Ortiz. In this composition he represents a corner of the Alhambra, reducing it to basic geometric shapes (triangles) with a clear vanishing point, and the sky can be discerned at the top.

Rivera incorporated new materials beyond the strictly pictorial in his creative universe, such, as wire mesh. He used overlapping planes and fabrics to create the effect of chromatic vibration.

Guerrero liked making large canvases series on the same subject. This one of Arcos Negros is an evolution of the Fosforescencias series. In both he depicts one of his major preoccupations: the order and structure of the pictorial surface.

This is one of the two ivory sculptures kept in our collections, of which this has the highest technical and compositional quality. Working with ivory requires great technical precision.

Sanchez Cotan is considered one of the creators of the prototype of Spanish still life popularized in the first third of the seventeenth century. Of all those he produced, this is the most sober and simple. Its compositional scheme was widely imitated by others.

How much this still life, like others by Van der Hamen, owes to Sánchez Cotán is undeniable as it was directly inspired by his models, not just in how objects are placed on a windowsill but also in the use of descriptive light.