PAIR OF LANDSCAPES, XALAPA, MEXICO. SPANISH SCHOOL, CIRCA 1840.

Landscapes, Xalapa, Mexico. Pair of oil paintings on canvas. Spanish School, circa 1840. Provenance: Conde de la Cortina collection, Jalapa, Mexico. A pair of landscapes belonging to the Spanish school of the first half of the 19th century, clearly influenced by Romanticism. Both demonstrate a knowledge of the Dutch Classical landscape, a major influence on Spanish Romantic landscape painting. Thus, we see V-shaped compositions, closed at the sides and open in the center, very low horizons that allow for a broad development of the sky, spaces constructed in depth through successive planes subtly differentiated by light and color, and small figures perfectly integrated into the natural setting. Furthermore, the skies are theatrical and dramatic, with low clouds behind which the golden light characteristic of Classical landscape painting filters. One of the most radical aspects of Romantic painting was the attempt to replace large canvases with historical or religious themes with landscapes. They aimed for the pure landscape, almost devoid of figures or entirely lacking them, to achieve the heroic significance of history painting. This was based on the idea that human feeling and nature should be complementary, one reflecting the other. In other words, the landscape should evoke emotion and convey ideas. Thus, landscape painters like the artist of these canvases sought to express their feelings through the landscape, rather than imitating it. Romantic landscape painting had two main branches: the dramatic, with turbulent and fantastical vistas, and the naturalistic, which emphasized images of a peaceful and serene nature. This second conception is what we see embodied in these works; the painter seeks to communicate a religious reverence for the landscape, for nature in its fullness. In fact, the artist's very use of light here conveys a hazy, murky, dreamlike atmosphere that invites the viewer to meditate and contemplate themselves within the landscape. Romantic landscape painting, however, comprises a wide variety of manifestations, not all of which are comparable; it does not affect all national schools equally, remaining more faithful to tradition in schools such as the French and Dutch. Thus, in this canvas, we do not find the grandiose stage sets of the British and Germans, the craggy mountains, or the monumental Gothic ruins. On the contrary, it is a flat, very horizontal landscape, despite the vertical elements that close off the sides in the foreground, endowed with a gentle dynamism determined by the hills and the shifting skies. The most typical elements of Romantic landscape painting, such as harsh weather or Gothic ruins, are absent, although the clear separation between the foreground and background is present, enhancing the theatrical character derived from the dramatic lighting. Likewise, the typical, highly pronounced Romantic perspective, with its abyssal effect, is employed, complemented by a slight blurring of viewpoints. Thus, the grandiose perspectives of 18th-century veduta are applied here to a sober landscape, which softens the scenographic construction of the landscape, so typically Romantic. Despite these local differences, despite this Romanticism contained in the form, we nevertheless find a distinctly poetic content, which goes beyond the simple representation of nature to depict it as a reflection of the author's melancholic, dark, and profoundly solitary feelings.

· Size: 66 x 80 cm; 74 x 87,5 cm (marco).