Carlos Ortiz de Taranco
1849. Oil on panel.Not on display
Carlos Ortiz de Taranco, who passed away in 1856, was a member of the Scientific, Literary and Artistic Athenaeum of Madrid. He was appointed as honorary academician of San Fernando, and the next year, he was given a number. He wears the medal of the academician upon his chest. This picture appears among the gifted portraits registered by Federico de Madrazo himself in his Handwritten Inventory, published by José Luis Díez in the catalogue of the Federico de Madrazo Exhibition, p. 462: ‘Bust portrait, rather small, by Carlos Taranco, panel, 1849’. This work epitomizes a prototypical portrait, frequently used by Madrazo in the 1840s, portable due to its size, and almost always executed as a gift for those in his inner circle. The Museo del Prado does not keep any other examples.
