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| Image: C.del Rosso |
Some months ago, I visited the
Monastery of El Paular with the student group of the University of Navarra’s
Senior Programme. I’ll share my experience with all of you today.
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| Autorretrato, 1633 |
I must admit that Carducho didn’t
mean much to me, but when I started to research more
about him and his artwork, I found an artist with a great inventiveness and
category.
He was originary from Florence
and well known by the Spanish Court: he worked for Philip III and IV. He had
the bad luck of being contemporary to Velázquez, a highly talented genius
willing to outshine the rest, who soon gets to be Phillip IV’s favorite.
Carducho wrote ‘Diálogos de la Pintura’ in
which, without mentioning him explicitly, he criticisizes Velázquez harshly.
His masterpiece can be found in
the Monastery of El Paular, Rascafría, on the Sierra de Guadarrama, Madrid. I’d
suggest going there, but if possible, not in winter, since it can get to be
really cold up there.
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| Image: C.del Rosso |
The painting was ordered by the prior Juan de Baeza: he wanted the history of the Carthusian and its founder, Saint Bruno, order painted on the arches found in the monastery’s gallery. Today the Carthusian order is a benedictine abbey. Carducho, helped by his assistants and following the prior’s guidelines, finished 56 paintings measuring up to 10 square meters each one, with round arch, in 6 years (from 1626 to 1632), which is actually an enormous labour. Nowadays 52 of them are displayed: 2 of them disappeared during the Spanish Civil War. The other 2 consist in a reproduction of the Order’s coat of arms and a portrait of Phillip IV. Yet, the paintings were saved abruptly during the Ecclesiastical Confiscation carried out in 1835 and ended up in different museums and other venues, most of them in a horrible state of conservation. Finally, they ended up under the Museo del Prado’s jurisdiction and its restoration unit needed 9 years to get their shine and dignity back. The monastery had been abandonned for years by then and it would need restoration and aconditioning before receiving its collection back; the lighting and temperature weren’t appropriate.
Out of the whole collection, it’s
convenient to highlight ‘Saint Bruno’s conversion’, ‘The Death of Odón de
Novara’ (with his self-portrait and
his friend’s portrait, Lope de Vega), and, of course, the monastery itself is a
must see. It was founded in 1390 and it keeps incredible treasures inside.
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| The conversion of St. Bruno |
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| The death of Odón de Novara |
Special thanks to Letizia Ruiz, director of this Museo del Prado’s restoration unit, who was our guide during the visit.
cristinadelrosso.com //
cristinadelrosso.artproject@gmail.com
Sources: Hubala, E. Die
Kunst des 17. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, Propyläen Verlag, 1990;
Bennassar, Velázquez,
Vida. Madrid, Cátedra, 2010;
Carducho, Diálogos de la pintura.Valladolid,
Maxtor, 2011
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