Cristóbal Balenciaga once stated that "a couturier must be an architect for the cut, a sculptor for the form, a painter for the colors, a musician for the harmony and a philosopher for the fit". A great artisan, Balenciaga was able to master to perfection the three-dimensional form, that's why he was often compared to famous painters. This comparison is actually the main theme behind an exhibition opening today at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.
"Balenciaga y la pintura española "(Balenciaga and Spanish Painting; until 22nd September 2019), the first major exhibition about the Basque couturier held in Madrid in fifty years, juxtaposes Balenciaga's creations to a series of paintings from the 16th to the 20th centuries.
Curator Eloy Martínez de la Pera selected 90 designs by Balenciaga (many of them never previously exhibited in public) from the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa in Getaria, the Museo del Traje in Madrid and the Museu del Disseny in Barcelona as well as from numerous private collections in Spain and elsewhere, and 55 paintings by El Greco, Velázquez, Murillo, Carreño de Miranda, Zurbarán, Goya, Madrazo and Zuloaga (on loan from Spanish institutions and private holdings).
The exhibition is arranged in a chronological order with paintings associated to different designs. Connections are made for different reasons: a particular colour, shape or silhouette may link a dress to a painting, but the connection may also be made studying more conceptual elements, architectural forms and volumes.
The result of these juxtapositions is fascinating since the connections are never casual, they are real and tangible, yet, at the same time, they are not literal (a key difference between Balenciaga and many contemporary designers who often use their sources in a very literal way, without adding anything original to their designs, but replicating the main inspiration provided by the source).
Yet the comparison also works in another way: painters are usually seen as the source for fashion design inspirations, but in this case they prove to be the transmitters of fashion and as real masters of the depiction of fabrics, textures, folds and volumes.
Balenciaga was born in Getaria (Guipuzkoa) in 1895; it was his mother Martina Eizaguirre, a seamstress, who introduced him to dressmaking as a child. She made indeed clothes for leading families of the area including the Marquis and Marchioness of Casa Torres who spent their summers in the Palacio Aldamar - also known as Vista Ona - in Getaria. It was there that the young Balenciaga made contact with the taste of the aristocratic elites.
It was also there that he was able to see and appreciate the outstanding Casa Torres art collection and library. The collection at Vista Ona included indeed works by Velázquez, El Greco, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and Goya, among other masters of Spanish painting, and Balenciaga probably started forging his aesthetic imagination through these painters who became the first visual chroniclers of the technical and stylistic innovations introduced between the 16th and 20th centuries in Spanish fashion (think about silk stockings, the ruff, the corset and the doublet).
The exhibition opens with a section devoted to the paintings that Balenciaga may have admired in his youth in the palace of the Marquis and Marchioness of Casa Torres - "Head of an Apostle" by Velázquez; "Saint Sebastian" by El Greco; and "Cardinal Luis María de Borbón y Vallabriga" by Goya. The portrait of the cardinal in his rich red vestments establishes a dialogue with a magnificent vivid red satin dress matched with a jacket richly embroidered with metallic thread, sequins and ceramic beads loaned from the Museo del Traje in Madrid.
But there are more comparisons to be made between religious art and fashion throughout the exhibition: there is an interaction between a spectacular blue silk evening gown and cape and the mantle of the same colour seen in "The Immaculate Conception" by Murillo, or the 1939 "Infanta" dress directly inspired by Velázquez, a modern reinterpretation of the clothes in which the painter depicted the Infanta Margarita of Austria.
Portraits like Zurbarán's "Saint Elizabeth of Portugal" or El Greco's "The Annunciation" inspired an evening gown with a voluminous overskirt and an evening dress in a golden shade of yellow, while the simple, minimalist lines of religious habits as painted in Zurbarán's portrait of Fray Francisco Zúmel, are echoed in wedding dresses characterised by clean lines and flattering silhouettes.
Considered by many to be one of the first fashion designers for his precise depiction of textiles and costumes in his works, Francisco de Zurbarán has become a constant reference for modern fashion designers, but Balenciaga was the first creator of fashion that he influenced. This connection is evident as the exhibition progresses and works by the two creators' are explored and analysed side by side.
Religion is one of the themes of the gallery focused on the influence of El Greco: religious paintings are displayed alongside a group of dresses in intense shades of pink, yellow, green and blue, a palette and luminosity that El Greco often used for the mantles and dresses of his Virgins, angels and saints.
These shades contrast with a key Balenciaga colour - black - a symbol of power and elegance and an archetype of Spanish identity. Describing Balenciaga's designs in October 1938, Harper's Bazaar wrote, "Here the black is so black that it hits you like a blow. Thick Spanish black, almost velvety, a night without stars, which makes the ordinary black seem almost grey." A jet black silk velvet evening coat with a ruffled collar evokes the form of a ruff such as the one worn by the man in the portrait by El Greco, dating around 1586.
The black and white in the Portrait of the 6th Countess of Miranda, attributed to Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, find an echo in a spectacular satin evening gown that combines black and ivory, while the same shades, highlighted in Alonso Sánchez Coello's Portrait of Juana of Austria, Princess of Portugal, reappear in a rigorously architectural reversible evening coat.
Visitors who prefer more colourful styles, should instead check out the section dedicated to flowers. After moving to Paris, Balenciaga made contact with the leading textile designers, printers and makers of buttons and floral and feather adornments. He created magnificent gowns with floral designs and flowery appliqué elements. Some examples are on display in this section accompanied by a group of still lifes by Spanish painters such as Juan de Arellano, Gabriel de la Corte and Benito Espinós.
Embroidery was another technique employed by Balenciaga and he created richly ornamented pieces inspired by his collection of historical costumes and Spanish items covered in intricate embroideries and decorated with beads.
Embroideries were also derived from paintings as proved by his 1960 formal ceremony dress, compared to Alonso Sánchez Coello's portrait of Anne of Austria, and by a shantung, ivory coloured wedding dress with silver thread embroidery, its lines echoed in the dress worn by Isabel de Borbón, Wife of Philip IV in the portrait by Rodrigo de Villandrando.
There is more to discover in the connection between Balenciaga and Francisco de Goya: in the exhibition the curator highlights this is not just a connection for purely aesthetic reasons, but it is also based on chromatic harmonies as shown by an evening gown with silk muslin, pearls and sequins, and the Portrait of the Marchioness of Lazán; or the evening gown in pale green satin with pearls and beads and the portrait of Queen María Luisa in a Dress wtih a hooped skirt.
One last section transports visitors to the 19th and 20th centuries via paintings with references to regional and folk costumes.
There are references to Spanish traditional dress throughout the work of Cristóbal Balenciaga, and in this exhibition they become very clear, especially when specific designs are compared to the work of painters such as the Basque artist Ignacio Zuloaga, whom Balenciaga knew during his years in San Sebastián.
A full-volume, red taffeta evening gown calls to mind the dress worn by María del Rosario de Silva y Gurtubay, Duchess of Alba, in her portrait by Zuloaga; a fuchsia cocktail dress in silk taffeta with bands of cotton thread embroidery has volumes that echo the dress worn by flamenco dancer Josefa Vargas in a painting by Antonio María Esquivel, while a short embroidered evening bolero jacket in silk velvet (a loan from the Hamish Bowles Collection) hints at the matador look of Julia in the portrait by Ramón Casas.
Each element from Balenciaga's vocabulary is replicated in the Thyssen-Bornemisza exhibition - the barrel line, the semi-fitted suit, the balcony skirt, the tunic, the sack dress and the baby doll dress - but so are the creative glossaries characterising each master featured in the event. Yet you don't need to be an art expert or a fashion historian to appreciate this exhibition: indeed "Balenciaga and Spanish Painting" is not an intensely obscure and conceptual event focused on art and couture techniques, but a very accessible visual journey through beauty, style an elegance.
