The pictorial dilettantism of Pío Baroja

Abstract

The main objective of this study consists of analyzing the pictorial dilettantism of Pío Baroja. By definition, the dilettante is someone who seems interested in a subject, especially in art, but who does not really know very much about it. In order to carry out the proposed study, I adopted a trilogy titled "City" of Pío Boroja: César o nada (1910); El mundo es ansï (1912); La sensualidad pervertida (1920). This trilogy is based on principal European cities at the beginnings of the 20th century: London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, etc. In addition to these novels, I chose Baroja’s autobiographies, essays and criticisms (El esctiror según él y los críticos (1944); Final del siglo XIX y principios del XX (1945);Galería de tipos de la época (1947)) to trace his main thoughts and opinions about the painting in general. Through the analysis of these texts, I can get to the following conclusions: First, through the long itinerary as novelist, Baroja has paid special attention to the famous Spanish painters like Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Sorolla, Zuloaga, Surbarán, etc. However, his attitude toward these painters is always unique and subjective, regardless of the general evaluations. Second, we can meet some painters who play an important role in the development of the story in the above mentioned novels. In spite of his endless interests and curiosity for the painters, he is not generous and sympathetic to them. In many occasions, he takes a negative stand toward the painters for their lack of reality or their parasitic life. Third Baroja doesn’t forget presenting the famous museums in Europe: the Louvre of Paris, the Prado of Madrid, the Vatican of Rome and Uffizi of Florence, etc. However, these places seem not to be connected organically with the novelistic actions of each character. In other words, the visits and descriptions of each museum are not integrated completely in the novelistic plot. As time passes, Baroja’s initial thoughts don’t remain fixed but changed considerably. His interests in the picture culminate with the Impressionist paintings. Since then his interests gradually have decreased. Finally he becomes disillusioned with the Avant-Garde pictures. Baroja was not insensitive to the new and innovative Avant-Garde works. However, instead of admiring the new artistic trends, he always maintained negative attitude to them. Finally, some pictorial techniques are introduced into his novels. On describing his characters or the novelistic space, he doesn’t create them in his imagination but presents intuitively them with his acute observation. Therefore, some scenes described in his novel remind us of the Impressionist painting.