159 CHAP VIII

CHAPTER VIII

Conclusion

Over one hundred and fifty examples of Picasso's work which refer to the art of the masters have been presented in this study illustrating that Picasso maintained a relationship with art history throughout his production as an artist. His raids on art history served him in many ways. I offer the following as possible explanations for this practice.

Picasso may have substituted the masters for father figures. He was so accomplished an artist that by the time he was fourteen his father, who was also his art teacher, turned over his brushes and palette to his son and swore never to paint again. What an impression this must have made on the young artist! Picasso then turned to the masters for his instruction, making them his new role models.

Once, while discussing the influence of El Greco and Cezanne in his work, Picasso explained “Naturally! Every painter must have a father and a mother” (Picasso qtd. in Duncan 521).

In describing Picasso's "Las Meninas" of 1957 after Velazquez, John Berger suggested that the distortions of Picasso's copy seem“only to rob Velazquez: to honor him perhaps at the same time robbing him. Even- and again like a child- thus to ask for his protection. In his own painting Velazquez is so effortlessly himself, and in Picasso's painting he is so overwhelmingly large, that he might be a father. It may be that as an old man Picasso here returns as a prodigal to give back the palette and brushes he hadacquired too easily at the age of fourteen” (Berger 185).

There is, moreover, a long tradition of artists receiving their instruction from the masters by copying the masters' works. Picasso's early training certainly included many hours of studying the works of the masters in his native Spain and he did the same on his numerous visits to Paris before he finally moved there in 1904. Many of the works Picasso studied were in the Prado Museum and the Louvre Museum. Penrose stated that “Picasso did not let his work exclude visits to the museums, which were one of his chief amusements during

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