Francisco de Subarang, born into a peasant family, remained a peasant throughout his life. In his early childhood, his family was poor and spared sheep. As he loved painting, his father sent him to Seville for further study. At first with a wood carving teacher to learn the art, and later engaged in the famous art teacher educator Bacheco, at this time and Velázquez with the same classmates, both of them later became the giants of Spain's painting world, but they walked their own artistic path. Subarang never left Spain, and Italy, the land of art, seemed unattractive to him. He disliked the hustle and bustle of the city and was a peasant-style painter who kept his home. He returned to his silent rural town to immerse himself in his artistic paradise and spent his life there.
Chinese Name: Francisco de Subarang
Nationality: Spain
Date of Birth: 1598
Date of Death: 1664
Occupation: Painter
Representative Works: San Serapion
Author's Biography
Francisco de Subarang. Born in a peasant family, he maintained a peasant temperament throughout his life. In his early childhood, his family was poor and spared sheep. As he loved painting, his father sent him to Severin for further study. At first with a wood carving teacher to learn the art, and later engaged in the famous art teacher educator Bacheco, at this time and Velasquez with the same class, they both later became the giants of Spain's painting world, but they walked their own artistic path.
Subarang never left Spain, the state of the art of Italy has no attraction to him. He disliked the hustle and bustle of the city and was a peasant-style painter who kept his home. He returned to his silent rural town, immersed himself in his artistic paradise, and spent his life there. Subarang was first influenced by Caravaggio's realism and was obsessed with depicting secular life. Later, he led a hermit-like life and his art went to the silent world of monks. He mainly painted altarpieces in churches and decorative paintings in monasteries. However, in the creation of religious paintings, he always maintained freedom of mind and art, and insisted on secularization. His works are as solemn, calm and restrained as his own life, avoiding passion and tragic atmosphere. His art has been described as feminine, tender and delicate. He disliked neither the majestic grandeur of Ribera nor the madness and restlessness of Greco. He always insisted on the serenity and orderliness of his pictures, and the health and dignity of his figures. As a peasant-born artist, he loved folk art more. Due to the influence of his position and living environment, his religious subject works are rich in simple and affectionate realism tendency, and the object modeling has a simple texture. Characters and environments are full of rustic local flavor. In addition, he made an in-depth study of rich and harmonious colors, heavy forms and strong contrasts between light and dark, and was called "the Caravaggio of Spain".
Works Appreciation
Subarang was good at still-life paintings, and his passion for them was no less than that of the monks who prayed and meditated. Like the Dutch still-life painters, he was not interested in luxurious decorations, but rather in treating the ordinary objects of daily life with a spirit of simplicity.
The arrangement and composition of a still life is very delicate to the painter, and must be made to conform to certain aesthetic laws. But Subram doesn't care about that. His still life is very special, arbitrary like an antique dealer, or more like a peddler. The objects are arranged one by one in a complementary way, each one independent of the other. The scenery he shaped pays special attention to the quality of the form, often using deep dark back to highlight the object, so that each image has its own unique personality: either warm or indifferent, or rough and unrestrained, or delicate. The artist paints objects as if he were a human being, and his distinctive characterization makes the paintings humane, and people call his still-life paintings "still-life portraits".
This painting has been translated as "The Miracle of St. Hugo", which depicts the religious story of a monk who violated the rules of eating meat and turned into ashes. The composition of the picture is simple, a group of monks dressed in uniform white robes sitting at the table, each person in front of a cutlery with food, each person is in a separate static, facial expression indifferent and focused. People and things are as heavy and stable as still life, almost like a statue. Only the two opposite figures at the table with dynamic expressions draw our attention, like elders reprimanding their servants, thus generating a certain sense of movement and vitality in the picture. On the simple background hangs a painting that looks like a scene of the Virgin and Child resting on their way to escape from Egypt, a painting within a painting that adds spatial depth and rich, passionate colors to the picture. The whole painting is composed of large pieces of gray and white to form a harmonious, plain and elegant tone, with a small amount of dark and heavy color background, making the picture a strong contrast between light and dark, and also strengthening the sense of quality of the object.
Spain from the first half of the 16th century, the domestic monarchy has been formed, and soon, and the implementation of foreign colonial expansion and invasion of the policy. 1519, the Habsburg dynasty of King Charles I of Spain, in the name of Charles V, inherited a large empire of Germany, Netherland, part of Italy and the American colonies. But conflicts within Spain intensified, with urban autonomy revolts and religious movements constantly striking at the extremely arbitrary feudal empire. Throughout the 16th century, Spanish culture was inherited from Italian influence, and many local schools of painting emerged. By the second half of the 16th century, the Spanish dynasty, like the Italian principalities, demanded that artists serve the court. Classical art was promoted. At the same time, Spain's religious control is still very strict, art service to the church has not weakened the momentum. Until the 17th century, Spain's politics and economy began to decline. Domestic class conflicts became more and more intense, and the people's democratic movement rose and fell with each other. Painters such as Subarang, Ribera and Velázquez were born in this period. This painting, St. Serapion, is a masterpiece of Subram's subject of monastic life. Francesco de Subarang and Velázquez were classmates. Together they studied painting with Bacicco and Sr. Elenra from a young age, and were influenced by the Italian Caravaggio. But Subarang was willing to spend his life in loneliness and lead a quiet life. He never left his country or his hometown in his life. Born in a farm family of shepherds, a young boy, because of the talent of the love of painting, and then embarked on the road of the painter. Subarang's paintings are largely based on the lives of saints, martyrs or monasteries, and his images are full of religious flavor. He was only good at strict realism, and the paintings he made had a strong reaction among the masses and were well received by the people. St. Serapion depicts the tragic image of a Christian martyr. St. Serapion, originally named "Peter Serapion", was a young English monk. In order to preach in North Africa, he had to deal with the Moors (the Moors are descendants of the Berbers of Northwest Africa and are mainly Muslims). The Moors often tortured Christians. Serapion heard that a large number of Christians were being held captive there and were being treated inhumanely. On one occasion, he offered himself as a hostage, promising the Moors a ransom for his imprisoned brothers. While waiting for the ransom for the monastery, he attempted to spread Christianity to the Moors and was himself imprisoned and killed. This happened in 1240. According to the actual facts of the time, it is said that he was hung up and disemboweled, and his internal organs were picked out of his belly, and he died of pain. This shook the painter. The painting was commissioned by the Seville Monastery. Its original purpose was to be hung on a funeral parlor in the monastery. When the monastery asked him to paint a crucifixion, he remembered this example from the Middle Ages and changed it to an image of the agony of Christian martyrdom, but instead of representing it factually, he depicted Serapion as a symbol of martyrdom, hanging by his hands and in a spiritual state of mind at the moment of death. The whole painting adopts Caravaggio's "method of darkness", i.e., the light shines directly on the martyr's white, transparent monk's clothes. The wide pleats of the monk's robe add a deep atmosphere to the picture. The martyr hangs his head helplessly over his right shoulder. A pair of bound wrists is carefully painted; because of the tightness of the rope, the ten fingers have appeared cyanotic, and they are feebly contracted. Instead of depicting the agony of death, the artist discloses the strong humanitarian spirit of the artist's heart with the expression of the silent resistance of the dying man.
Subarang's oil paintings are skillful, but the subject matter is relatively narrow. In addition to the images of martyrs such as "St. Atta" (made in about 1630), "St. Peter Nolasco Dreaming of Jerusalem" (made in 1629), and "Kneeling St. Francis" (made in 1639), there is also an altarpiece of a multi-personal scene of "In Praise of Doma of Akhna" (made in 1631). Throughout his life, only this painting, St. Serapion, which was painted in 1628 and is now in the Wadsworth Library in Hartford, Connecticut, is the most characteristic of his artistic character.