Panorama of 17th Century's Spain Seen Through Genre Painting

장르화를 통해 본 17세기 스페인 전경

The economic decline coincided with the crooked political path of Spanish monarchy that has been on an almost permanent state of war. The Spanish empire was divided and consequently, general impoverishment spread throughout the whole country quickly. Nevertheless Spanish culture reached the climax, especially in the field of painting. Spanish paintings of 17th century are basically religious based on concept of Baroque, whose theme is usually the immaculate conception or mysterious figures of saints. Velaquez, Mrillo, and Ribera are the main painters who represented the trend of this time. Despite having fame as religious court painters, they painted subjects from low society such as beggars in rags, dwarves, jesters, or the poor child. They reflected an optimistic expression and an awe for human being in their paintings greatly. In this paper, we are dealing with three main representative painters of Baroque era whose theme was a picaresque character. This character was one of the axes that coexisted with royals and nobles in 17th century of Spain. The art works that are dealt in this paper serve as materials for historial values and through them we can observe the atmosphere of decline that dominated Spain of the time.