The Revivification of Baroque Paintings in the Novels of Jorge Semprun

Abstract

Jorge Semprun (1923–2011) was a Spanish, politically active writer who lived in France most of his life. Ηe served as Minister of Culture in Spain’s socialist government from 1988 to 1991. During the period of his office a subject of prime importance was the action of exposing paintings in a modern museum in order to encourage the dialogues between the artists of several periods and mainly the dialogue of modern public with the artistic heritage of the past. His interest, manifested in the extensive and recurring references, made in his works, to three paintings from 17th century Holland, Italy and Spain, lies mainly in the renovation, the new life that he attributes to them by integrating baroque works in the history of modern Europe. Three famous paintings, Johannes Vermeer’s “View of Delft”, the “Judith slaying Holofernes’s” of Artemisia Gentileschi and Diego Velasquez’s “Las Meninas” find a new place in history of art as their initial “life” in Delft, Rome and Madrid respectively is imbricated, on multiple levels, with persons and events of the contemporary era. Further, the views of the writer that he was, on ways to exhibit baroque works in today’s museums, heightened by his sensitivities as a citizen of Europe and by a sense of responsibility owing to his institutional position as minister of culture in Spain, greatly contribute to the actual debate on the interaction between the 21st and the 17th century.