Spanish Painting: From the Golden Age to Modernism

Coinciding with the rise of the Habsburg dynasty and the

expansion of the Spanish Empire, the Spanish Golden Age created

a fertile environment for cultural and scientific discovery. Some

of the country’s greatest music, literature, and architecture

was created in the period between the mid-sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries—and painting was no exception.

Rich in illustrations and fascinating texts, this overview takes

a thematic and chronological approach to the era and its later

influences. Opening with Spain’s emergence as a European

power, it explores how developments such as the construction

of El Escorial ushered in a new era for painting; how the cities of

Madrid, Toledo, and Seville developed as centers of intellectual,

political, and artistic activity; and how the Baroque period gave

way to the Rococo after the collapse of the Habsburg empire.

Every major painter of the period is included here, with 250

gloriously reproduced works by El Greco, Ribera, Velázquez,

Zurbarán, Murillo, Ribalta, Goya, and dozens more. A final

chapter reveals how Spanish painters of the twentieth century,

such as Picasso and Dalí, were shaped by their Golden Age

forebears.