Saint Justa Analysis

Tastefully developed and carefully curated, The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University now holds one of the largest collections of Spanish art outside of Spain. The museum prides itself on displaying widely diversified paintings, a statement I do not fully agree with. Although the two-story museum’s walls are furnished with with a wide variety of subject content there is a chauvinistic sense about their collections. I am not saying there is an unequal ratio of male to female portraits because there isn’t. The museum has a plethora of women as subjects, but they only seem to only display women painted by men. Two paintings that really stood out to me were Portrait of María Luisa Gabriela of Savoy painted by Miguel Jacinto Meléndez and Saint Justa by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Despite the face they completely different women, Justa and Maria Luisa Gabriela of Savoy’s portraits were both painted to appease the standards of proper feminine women in the eyes of men. As a painter of the Baroque and Rococo era, Miguel Jacinto Melendez’s work had a very distinct artistic style that was typical of the early 18th century. Greatly admired for his attention to detail and delicate portraits, Melendez earned a position at …show more content…
Most people forget Justa was painted for a legitimate reason. Rather than another ornate painting of a woman standing in a palace, Saint Justa is a woman with religious significance. Maria Luisa Gabriela of Savoy was painted merely for the King to show off his beautiful queen. Justa earned the right to be painted by showing actions of bravery. Murillo does not make her accomplishments incredibly clear but he somewhat incorporates her strength and bravery by adding symbolic objects in his depiction on her. Unlike Melendez’s portrayal of the queen, Murillo does not fully portray Justa as a woman without