This Madrid exhibition is uncovering the influence of Spanish masters on Cristóbal Balenciaga

Before Balenciaga was known for chunky sneakers and ironic renditions of IKEA bags, there was its namesake, Cristóbal Balenciaga – one of the world’s greatest couturiers, affectionately named “el Maestro”. He was the designer that fashion luminaries, like Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, tipped their hats to. Although his creations have been trusted go-tos for high-profile women of the 20th century, not that much is known about the man himself – as he only gave a handful of interviews during his relatively short, yet immensely influential, 30-year reign over the fashion world from Paris. Lead by curator Eloy Martinez de la Pera, Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in collaboration with Las Rozas Villages — the Madrid location of the 11 Bicester Villages luxury destination shopping group, who also created at Fashion Route guide through the Madrid museum — is tracing the master couturier’s inspirations back to Spanish paintings from the 16th through to the 20th century, in a new exhibition entitled, Balenciaga and Spanish painting. 

“Not everything that is painted is art and not every garment is art,” said de la Pera at the press conference for the show’s opening. “But Balenciaga had a conceptual base. He had a creative process the same as any painter.”  Beginning his career assisting his mother in her work as a seamstress for local noblewomen, by the age of 12 the Getaria-born designer began work as an apprentice tailor, spending many hours in the home of his patroness, the Marchioness of Casa Torres, who owned one of the best collections of Spanish art at the time. Incredibly, the exhibition opens with four masterpieces a young Balenciaga would have come across in his work for the Marchioness, including paintings  by Diego Velázquez, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, El Greco and Francisco de Goya.

While it may seem like a stretch to connect ornate oil paintings that were made well before Balenciaga’s time to his elegant couture confections that defined the mid-20th century, it is difficult to look at Goya’s Cardinal Luis Maria de Borbón y Vallabriga (c.1800), which hung in Vista Ona Palace next to a ‘60s Balenciaga dress and not see the parallels.  Both pieces share crucial elements: a deep crimson shade of red; a tiered silhouette punctuated with silver embellishments; an emphasised waist finished with a cropped, oversized layer. But this would not be the last time clerical attire, through the prism of different Spanish masters, would leave visible traces on Balenciaga’s gowns.

For Queen Fabiola of Belgium’s wedding in 1960, the descendent of the Marchioness of Casa Torres came to Balenciaga for a wedding dress that would make her a queen. This time, the Spanish couturier turned to Francisco de Zurbarán’s 1628 Fray Francisco Zúmel for inspiration. Using the simplistic tailoring of the white friar robes, he created a mink-trimmed satin gown for the monarch-to-be. “Queen Fabiola of Belgium’s gown was majestic, but sober,” says de la Pera. “Balenciaga was fascinated by the simplest pattern making – in this case a garment of three seams.”

Beyond the ornamental detail and elaborate silhouettes foregrounded in these Spanish masterpieces, the colours found in these paintings – and especially those employed by Mannerist painter El Greco – moved the designer considerably. Balenciaga’s protégé, Hubert de Givenchy, who worked closely with the Thyssen-Bornemisza team on the exhibition before his death last year, recalls the couturier telling him, “How am I not going to be able to use those colours in my collection?” From the canary yellows and cerulean blues found in pieces like El Greco’s Anunciación (c.1600), to the velvety blacks in Retrato de un caballero (c.1586), there is an affectionate imitation that can be found throughout Balenciaga’s craftmanship.

“Black was the colour of Philip II’s court,” explains de la Pera, contrasting the decadent use of the colour by Spanish courtiers to the austere way in which the Dutch wore it. “It was at that time that a new dye came from Mexico that made every other black look like grey.” Still, the characters of Spanish portraiture such as ballerinas, toreadors and the Duchess of Alba also found their way into Balenciaga’s gowns, modern cocktail dresses and boleros. Despite the many notable women who lived their lives in Balenciaga dresses, de la Pera chose not to include photos or captions under the works in order to focus on the striking relationship between couture and paintings.

It can be controversial to compare fashion to art — and especially today as the fashion industry comes under fire for thoughtless plagiarism and a quick pace that renders designs out of fashion after an Instagram photo — but Balenciaga and Spanish painting makes a good case for seeing the artistry in Balenciaga’s designs, while at the same time exposing the themes of fashion in masterpieces. Looking at the ornate pattern work, embellishment and fabrication that went into depicting Isabel de Borbón’s gown by Rodrigo de Villandrando, for example, de la Pera is right to ask, “Who would dare to say that this is not couture?” 

Balengiaga and Spanish painting runs through to 22 September at Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum.

The German locations for the museum’s Bicester Shopping Collection partner are the Ingolstadt Village and Wertheim Village.