Editing Ignacio Zuloaga (section)

==Zuloaga during and after the Spanish Civil War==

Zuloaga was committed to the [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|Nationalist faction]] during the [[Spanish Civil War]] and the [[Spanish State]] of the ''[[caudillo]]'' [[Francisco Franco|Franco]], whose portrait he painted in 1940. During the war, Zuloaga honored the defenders of the ''[[Siege of the Alcázar]]'' in 1936, when the building's Nationalist defenders refused to surrender despite the building being in flames. This siege, and other events such as the death of [[José Moscardó Ituarte|General Moscardo's]] son, served as a rallying cry for the Nationalist forces.  In January 1939, this painting was hung in adjacent room displaying Picasso's modernist painting of [[Guernica (Picasso)|Guernica]] during an exhibition of Spanish art in London.<ref>Crosson, D. page 148.</ref> The nationalist content of his depiction of the Alcazar was allied to Zuloaga's celebration of folk traditions. Stylistically, the directness of the ''Siege'' painting also avoids modernity's challenge to realistic depictions: [[Fascism]] was not endeared to complex symbolism such as found in works such as ''Guernica''.

In an April 1939 letter to his patron, Mrs Garret, Zuloaga stated:<blockquote>Thanks to God, and to Franco, at last the war is won and over! And over, despite the goodwill of those so-called democratic countries – what a farce, what shame, when those countries learn the truth of this drama! We all will work with all our strength to rebuild a new Spain (free, great and unified) to Spanishize Spain, and get rid of all outside influences, so that we can keep our great nature. That’s my dream in art. I hate fads (which are destructive to racial characteristics) One must (for good or bad) be oneself, and not ape the style of anyone else. I will dedicate the years that are left to me to that end. What shame there will be in the future, for those countries who inflicted crime, savage vandalism, which reigned within the soviet clan in Spain!<ref>Crosson, page 151.</ref></blockquote>

He was later to claim that he was aghast, as a [[francophile]], when Hitler defeated France in 1940. After his death in 1945, he appeared on Spain's 500 peseta banknote emitted by [[Francoist Spain]] in its 1954 series, with a depiction of Toledo on the back.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100107040336/http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/spain/SpainP148-500Pesetas-1954-donated_f.jpg 500 peseta]</ref>

Brinton in his 1909 essay was prescient of Zuloaga's future enamourment with [[Falangism]]: <blockquote>He personifies in extreme form the spirit of autocracy in art, the principle of absolutism so typical of his race and country. You will meet in these bold, affirmative canvases no hint of cowardice or compromise. The work is defiant, almost despotic. It does not strive to enlist sympathy nor does it fear to be frankly antipathetic...the tones not infrequently acidulous, and the surfaces sometimes hard and metallic. Reactionary if you will...<ref>Brinton 1909, page 30.</ref></blockquote>