Triumph of Saint Hermenegild by Fransisco de Herrera the Younger, 1654. Recorded live April 20, 2022
hi and welcome to the prada museum in madrid spain and our we’re here again with our weekly wednesday sessions in english a project that’s supported and made possible by american friends of the prada museum and the great invitation to be guests on the social media programming of the prado that we’re here live we are an u.s non-profit and we encourage everyone to find out about american friends of the prado to help us with our projects to help this great museum today we have the privilege of being here a few moments before the museum opens in a room dedicated to the beginning of really the baroque in madrid and a painting that was a major game changer at the time we are talking about the triumph of saint hermene hildo which was painted by francisco herrera the younger in the year 1654. so francisco herrera the younger is a painter whose father francisco herrera was also a painter and they were from seville and his father was possibly the first teacher of velasquez but he was had a very bad temper and velasquez did not stay in his uh and his workshop and his son stayed a little bit longer but didn’t stay either from what we understand and he seemed to after have an initial training um kind of escape in a way to rome where he studied and saw everything that was happening in painting in rome at the time with the karachis the bolognese school the fresco paintings of the barbarini uh palace and he brings all this back this is his trip back after rome uh and he stops in madrid and he has this commission and this commission is this work is the central panel we believe of a larger our altarpiece which would have had images of other saints and altarpiece for the convent of saint hermene hilda which is a convent the first convent in madrid for the barefoot carmelites which is a religious order that was founded by saint teresa of jesus and saint john of the cross two spanish mystics uh very influential uh religious leaders and later saints and saint ermine hildo was promoted as a saint by the king at the time of the making of the convent philip ii now here i’m just talking about the saint not the painting the saint hermenegildo was promoted because he was a link of a royal family member also becoming a saint and he’s going back quite remote in time saint airman hilda’s from the sixth century he’s a vici gothic prince now the vici goths are here in spain after the fall of the roman empire and before the rest of modern history that comes afterwards but in the 600s hermenegildo he it becomes a saint because he embraces the orthodox catholic faith which believes in the trinity what is declared the tonight then the nicean creed and this versus the arianism which the visigoths king uh had embraced which is a little bit of a theological dispute at the time but so he embraces and rejects to follow the arianism rights and he is put into prison by his father and eventually killed for this and here in the foreground we’re seeing his father is king leo vigildo the visigothic king and he is dressed as a military leader here with uh with his coat of armor and a kind of an out of fashion dress at the time to make us go back to uh what would a visigothic person dress like in the sixth in the sixth century which we we did we don’t have any documentation but the artist is creating this for the for the viewer and he is kind of realizing with this gesture of oh my goodness my son was right and i was wrong no so these two large figures are the king and the bishop of the arianism and they are in shadow and herrera is showing us that they are the people who were mistaken whereas versus the absolute triumph where here this beautiful beard and these look at this technique of painting you know they’re very they’re much darker but at the same time uh use much more paint to make them very earthly you know they’re grounded on the earth with these wonderful curls look at this curl against the cloud background you know the hair it’s just beautiful technique and herrera is really painting very virtuously with lots of virtuosity there’s no underdrawing he has learned kind of a fresco technique even though this is oil and he’s being very fast and and energetic he this also goes to it goes well with his character that he was supposed to be a person with a very strong temperament and so his painting kind of goes and goes along with that personal temperament and these two figures are versus the absolute triumph into heaven the prize of going to heaven of saint hermenegildo because he chose the right option of the religion and he’s and he’s with his symbols he’s dressed as a roman prince kind of in a very theatrical way uh um that would have been common to baroque theater in spain at the time uh he’s dressed in these clothes that remind of a of a roman prince but at the same time very loosely interpretation and he has the symbols uh within this explosion of he’s raising into heaven he’s holding the cross it’s beautifully uh painted in shadow against the light background that’s coming out of the painting and he there’s the the the only straight lines we see in the whole painting are those rays of light coming out of coming out of heaven and to the left he has the crown and the scepter which show that he is a member of the royal family he was the prince above and above all of these uh angels musical angels that are uh part of the clouds that are taking him and accompanying him into heaven and accompanying the figure that is in a great movement circular movement very sinewy uh very expressive very baroque filled with movement and with a strong powerful figure that’s lit from the background the other symbols that we see are of his prize of the wreath of the feather wreath of flowers and the palm of his martyrdom at the top that he deserves for his martyrdom because he was sent to prison by his father for not following the aryanist right religious rights and he was eventually beheaded and we see that also in the lower angel that they’re holding his chains here his chains for imprisonment and the acts that beheaded him so he uh is here’s promoted to the viewer the faithful of the triumph of his faith by the triumph of catholicism it’s the triumph of of the prize of heaven for selecting the correct religious doctrine and so this is a saint that was kind of uh promoted by philip ii two generations earlier for the barefoot carmelites which curiously embrace um curiously as in as in a juxtaposition embrace vows of poverty but a few years later they are dependent upon patrons and patrons in their founding convents want to have their personal chapels that show their wealth and also their devotion so there’s a little bit of juxtaposition between amazing altarpieces which was funded by a patron who had been buried in the main chapel of this convent versus the votes of poverty and so this painting francisco herrera painted and he created a new style that’s happening with a religious change a very strong religious change of impressing the faithful and in the same room just to just before we end there it’s a painting ten years later that very much follows his style of a saint in this case saint augustine also triumphant and raising into heaven so he created a new idea um brought it to madrid and had followers and people other painters who would imitate him now he was later on very successful became painters of the king became main architect for the king he was a very well-rounded artist and carried out many many functions and this painting was bought on purpose just for the prada museum in the 1830s by the king that opened the prado ferdinand vii because it was recognized as important in the progression of spanish painting and so it was it had been for it was up for sale and the king purchased it specifically to bring it here for the prada museum so we thank you very much we hope you will visit the prado since seems traveling is becoming more easy and we would love to for you to enjoy all of this in person but if you until then uh there’s much information on the museum’s website and you can also follow um find out more about us in our support for this museum of american friends and also at the foundation in spain the foundation amigos so thank you very much
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