Religion and spirituality in the "End of the century". Franciscan iconography in the contemporary painting of Málaga

Abstract

The crisis of the religious painting in the 19th century experienced a change of direction at the end of this century with the fin-de-siecle poetics reform. At that moment the explicit and strict naming was extended to the wide spiritual field, based in the sincere, direct and indivi­dual relationship between the human being and the divinity, who in certain moments was materialized in artistic communities. The mystic, mental, salvation, even aesthetics aspects were promoted at the end of the century providing the religious subject matter with new faces. In this context the contemporary action of San Francisco de Asís, the favourite religious iconography in the complex fin-de-siecle spirit, was related to the assimilation of his figure with the worries of the modem humankind. The painting from Málaga has interesting examples which meet these premises.