1620 -1685 · The Sevillian baroque landscape in motion

The Landscape with Shepherds from 1665 vibrates trees, rocks, castle, herd and sky. The shadow in the foreground opens onto a luminous distance where nature really seems to be in turmoil.

Born in Azpeitia in 1620 and died in Seville in 1685, Ignacio de Iriarte arrived in the Andalusian capital around 1642. He probably trained with Francisco de Herrera the Elder and quickly integrated into local artistic circles. He is among the founders of the Sevillian Academy, of which he became secretary. Although he also painted a few religious subjects, he specialized in landscape, a genre still relatively rare and not very autonomous in Spain in the 17th century. There are few sure works, which makes the Landscape with Shepherds, signed and dated 1665, essential to define his style. In this large horizontal canvas, trees with twisted trunks stand on the first floor plan. Their precisely described leaves stand out against the light over a lighter valley. Mountains, almost fantastic rock formations and perched castle close the depth. Shepherds, horses, goats, sheep and dogs give the territory a human scale, but remain small episodes within a dominant nature. Iriarte knows Flemish and Italian landscape prints. He adapts their successive shots, their contrasts and their distant architectures to a more fluid technique. Shadows and clearings intersect, creating a dynamism that prevents the landscape from becoming a still setting. Murillo would have appreciated its landscaped backgrounds, but Iriarte deserves to be seen as an autonomous author: at home, the tree, the sky and the rock are the real protagonists. The "Ignacio de Iriarte" selection notably compares Landscape with Shepherds. His reading favors the story.

Iriarte does not place the shepherds before nature: he absorbs them in a living territory where each shadow seems to announce a movement.