Viewing Room

The representation of elderly people has been quite limited since antiquity, often confined to figures of authority and power, and in sculpture, to saints and gods, typically male. It is due to the Judeo-Christian tradition that they tend to be depicted as venerable prophets, patriarchs, and saints.

With a greater emphasis on individualism among the upper classes of society starting from the Renaissance, we can see more examples of the portrait genre. Kings, nobility, patrons, and the church occupy religious and socially prominent spaces, with most of these individuals being of a certain age, displaying traits of serenity, wisdom, and power.

The Baroque period, with its dramatic effect and stark contrasts in lighting, brings more humble characters to the forefront, where serenity and balance are no longer important, but quite the opposite. Opposed to the portraits of saints, nobles, and religious figures, we find beggars, drunkards, and elderly figures in genre painting.

As with other stages of life, at first glance, we tend to attribute certain concepts to the depiction of these figures: vulnerability, loneliness, wisdom, dignity, the passage of time, and decay. These representations reflect attitudes towards aging, revealing both the prejudices and the idealizations of different eras. Even in our time, where the photographic vision prevails, we cannot escape these conventions, showing us that our view is always mediated and never entirely objective.

–Javier Arizabalo