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5 How to prescribe a cure for the ills of art

Abstract

Pablo Ruiz Picasso offers an introduction into some general problems of interpretation of nineteenth-century European painting as a whole, and Spain specifically, at a key turning point in Picasso, and Modernism's, trajectory. Science and Charity is an example of how popular allegories were transformed by late nineteenth-century artists to help visualize larger social, metaphysical and, ultimately, aesthetic issues. Art historian María Teresa Ocaña sees Science and Charity as a 'watershed in Picasso's career' and as the last hommage 'Picasso granted his father'. The problems posed by Science and Charity are not those of heritage or genealogies that lead to mythic origins, at least not visual ones; such problems are the domain of provenance and iconography. The artistic debates concerning Naturalism versus idealism were, in Spain, nothing less than what has been termed 'culture wars' concerning the relations between the State, science and the Catholic religion.

Abstract

Pablo Ruiz Picasso offers an introduction into some general problems of interpretation of nineteenth-century European painting as a whole, and Spain specifically, at a key turning point in Picasso, and Modernism's, trajectory. Science and Charity is an example of how popular allegories were transformed by late nineteenth-century artists to help visualize larger social, metaphysical and, ultimately, aesthetic issues. Art historian María Teresa Ocaña sees Science and Charity as a 'watershed in Picasso's career' and as the last hommage 'Picasso granted his father'. The problems posed by Science and Charity are not those of heritage or genealogies that lead to mythic origins, at least not visual ones; such problems are the domain of provenance and iconography. The artistic debates concerning Naturalism versus idealism were, in Spain, nothing less than what has been termed 'culture wars' concerning the relations between the State, science and the Catholic religion.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. List of plates vi
  4. List of contributors viii
  5. Introduction 1
  6. 1 How (not) to make a durable state 13
  7. 2 How to be universal 38
  8. 3 How to tell time 63
  9. 4 How to be religious under liberalism 89
  10. 5 How to prescribe a cure for the ills of art 109
  11. 6 How to know about right and wrong 126
  12. 7 How to be a man 147
  13. 8 How to be a writer for the press – and how to write about it 174
  14. 9 How to be a cultural entrepreneur 191
  15. 10 How to be a man of letters 216
  16. 11 How to be an intellectual 233
  17. 12 How to live a colonial soldier’s life 250
  18. Index 270
  19. Plate section 275
Spain in the nineteenth century
This chapter is in the book Spain in the nineteenth century
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526124753.00010

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. List of plates vi
  4. List of contributors viii
  5. Introduction 1
  6. 1 How (not) to make a durable state 13
  7. 2 How to be universal 38
  8. 3 How to tell time 63
  9. 4 How to be religious under liberalism 89
  10. 5 How to prescribe a cure for the ills of art 109
  11. 6 How to know about right and wrong 126
  12. 7 How to be a man 147
  13. 8 How to be a writer for the press – and how to write about it 174
  14. 9 How to be a cultural entrepreneur 191
  15. 10 How to be a man of letters 216
  16. 11 How to be an intellectual 233
  17. 12 How to live a colonial soldier’s life 250
  18. Index 270
  19. Plate section 275
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