The Arts of Spain

This beautifully illustrated book opens up the great age of Spanish and Portuguese sculpture, painting, architecture, and the decorative arts. A dazzling array of arts from the Peninsula and Hispanic America of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the time of the Reconquest of Granada to the decline of the Habsburg dynasty in Spain, is presented here.

The book also discusses Spain’s cultural relationships with the rest of Europe, particularly Britain, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and explores the ambivalent ways in which Spanish art was viewed and received. Often prejudiced ideas about Spanish Catholicism and culture led to a biased understanding of Iberian arts. This view also sometimes affected the Spaniards’ own view of their arts and traditions, as well as the way in which the art of Spain is perceived today by others. This landmark publication explores how works of art produced in Spain and Portugal relate to other European traditions through themes such as the role of the church, secular art, the heritage of Islam and Judaism, and trade and patronage.

The variety of artworks examined in context within each chapter is impressive and eclectic, ranging from paintings, sculpture, books, and engravings to tapestries, furnishings, ceramics, and architecture. Marjorie Trusted’s accessible but authoritative text, works of art from Spain, Portugal, and Hispanic America, and maps and a timeline linking Hispanic art and culture with contemporary events elsewhere make this an invaluable survey of Hispanic art during its golden age.