Saint Francis of Assisi by Herrera I the elder
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Herrera the Elder was a spanish painter and engraver, an enormously representative artist of the evolution of the painting style developed in Seville in the first half of the 17th century. Even the artist's definitive transfer to Madrid in 1650 is eloquent of the situation of generalized crisis that is lived in those years in the Sevillian city.
His father, Juan de Herrera y Aguilar, was a painter, illuminator and engraver, an activity that his brother Juan continued, a family trend that our painter also transferred to his own son, Francisco de Herrera el Mozo. Some old sources suggest that he was a disciple of Francisco Pacheco, understanding that he was first educated in his father's workshop. In any case, even if this is not fully confirmed, he did leave evidence of his good relationship with this master, which is not trivial in the case of Herrera, since the sources portray him as a particularly intransigent and difficult person, as proven by the documents that show his continuous lawsuits and conflicts.
According to Palomino, Velázquez himself was a victim of this harsh character, who entered his workshop while still a child, where he only stayed for a few months before moving to his future father-in-law Pacheco's workshop. Herrera's first known work dates from 1609, the composition of an engraved book cover.
It was in 1619 when he was sued to demand that he took the guild examination that he had not yet passed despite having been working for several years and having contracted in 1616 an important series of paintings for the convent of San Francisco. From the following decade on, he became one of the most praised and esteemed masters in Seville, receiving important commissions and being required from outside the city. In addition to practicing oil on canvas, he also cultivated fresco painting; an example of this is the decoration of the church of the Franciscan college of San Buenaventura in Seville (1626-1628), for which he developed his art in both modalities. One of the canvases of this cycle belongs today to the Prado Museum: "San Buenaventura receives the habit of San Francisco", undoubtedly the most interesting work of his hand that the museum possesses.
In the early years of his activity, he appears indebted to the art of illumination practiced by his father, especially in his concern for the linear. The late Mannerist formulas practiced by Pacheco are also present in this initial stage. But the most noticeable influence in the work of the mature Herrera was the art of Juan de Roelas, one of the leading figures of Sevillian painting in those years. From him derives above all the execution, with loose touches and Venetian roots, which Herrera exacerbated until he reached an extreme looseness of brushstroke. Thus, even though his works still have compositional schemes that are certainly mannerist, they are softened by the uninhibited technique he uses. His works reveal, at the same time, an unequal artist, in whom certain roughness and disharmonies can be noticed, which coexist with tonalities and atmospheres of an extraordinary finish.
Francisco Herrera, the Elder (born c. 1590, Sevilla, Spain—died December 1656, Madrid) was a Spanish painter and engraver whose works mark the transition from Mannerism to Baroque.
Herrera is said to have been for a short time the master of Diego Velázquez, and he has been claimed as the originator of a new national style that culminated in the achievements of Velázquez. It seems, however, that Herrera was a follower, rather than a forerunner, of the new style. His earliest-known works, an engraving of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1610) and a painting of the Pentecost (1617), are in the Mannerist tradition, far removed from the simple Caravaggesque naturalism of Velázquez’s earliest works. Herrera’s later compositions, such as The Apotheosis of St. Hermenegild (c. 1624), echo the Venetian manner of Juan de las Roelas. A marked development in the direction of naturalism first appears in three scenes from the life of St. Bonaventure commissioned in 1627 by the Franciscan convent in Sevilla; this may be attributed to the influence of Francisco de Zurbarán, who contributed four paintings to the series. Naturalism in Herrera’s work is accompanied by a broad technique, akin to José de Ribera’s; but in later works, such as St. Basil (1637), his brushwork became so coarse that it distorts the forms.
Sometime after 1638 Herrera moved to Madrid. He seems to have been unaffected by the later development of Velázquez or by other court painters. The elongated forms and elaborate draperies of St. Joseph (1648), his last documented work, nevertheless suggest that he may have been influenced by the style of Anthony Van Dyck. Herrera appears to have acquired considerable fame in Sevilla in his own time. His influence on other artists is revealed in The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, which was the model for Bartolomé Murillo’s painting of this subject.
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