Spanish Baroque painting

Its main objective was, above all, to allow the viewer to easily understand the scenes depicted in the works through the use of realism, while also meeting the Catholic Church's demands for 'decorum' during the Counter-Reformation.

Despite the fact that Spain was hit especially hard by the General Crisis, this period is known as the Golden Age of Spanish Painting, because of the great quantity, quality, and originality of the world class artists that arose during the time.

Foreign artists operating in Rome, such as Claudio de Lorena and Nicolas Poussin, were commissioned to produce two series of paintings for the Gallery of Landscapes.

Painting was considered a position of manual labour, and was therefore subject to the low pay and lack of social recognition typically afforded to lesser, menial roles.

Francisco Pacheco, the Spanish Baroque painter under whom Velázquez studied, believed that the ultimate goal of painting was to inspire religious devotion within the viewer, bringing them closer to God.

With the rise of Protestantism and their increasing reluctance to worship certain religious symbols associated with Catholicism, the Church further encouraged depictions of the veneration of the Virgin Mary, as well as Saint Joseph (encouraged by Teresa of Ávila), The Immaculate Conception is a religious motif characteristic of Spain which frequently appears in paintings, with the country, led by the monarchy, determined in defending this doctrine, which still hadn't been established by the Pope.

For similar reasons, depictions of the Holy Communion, and Eucharistic subjects gained increasing importance (exemplified in Claudio Coello's Adoración de la Sagrada Forma in El Escorial).

Depictions of Evangelical themes were extremely common, and were also often used to combat Protestant heresy: the Last Supper reflects the Eucharistic consecration; Christ's miracles make reference to the works of compassion (such as the series of paintings by Murillo for the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville).

With the consolidation of Spanish portraiture was throughout the 17th century through the magnificent portraits by Velázquez, as well as those by Ribera, Juan Ribalta and Zurbarán, artists continued to reproduce the characteristics typical of the theme until the work of Goya.

In any case, in comparison with the 16th century, there is a notable increase in paintings depicting mythological subject matter which were not created exclusively for royal residences, and a production of independent works was established, logically, reached a wider audience and contained a greater variety of iconography.

[12] Landscape paintings, like portraiture, were considered a theme of lesser importance by treatise writers, who placed the depiction of human figures at the apex of the hierarchy of genres.

Other painters, such as Francisco Collantes and Benito Manuel Agüero, who worked in Madrid, as well as Antonio del Castillo, from Cordoba, have also been praised for their landscape paintings.