Death of the Count of Villamediana
1868. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
The artist painted this picture in 1868 and submitted it to the National Exhibition of 1871, where it received a second medal out of regulation. The theme that Castellano chose is part of one of the most legendary episodes of the Spanish Austrian court. Juan de Tassis y Peralta (1582–1622), Count of Villamediana took part in it. He was one of the most distinguished characters of the reign of Philip IV. As a knight he led a turbulent and dissipated life. He was a good horseman and skilled in the art of lancing bulls. As well as being a good and scathing poet, he was a gallant and arrogant womaniser. For this reason, he had to leave Spain for Naples and Lombardy. On his return to Madrid, he even rivalled Philip IV in love affairs. This is because a rumoured affair between him and Queen Isabella of Bourbon herself, to whom the poet alluded in his verses under the nickname of Francelisa. However, it seems that the real reason for this dispute was another lady of the Court, Doña Francisca de Tavora, whom both gentlemen were courting. There are multiple versions of what allegedly triggered the king´s jealousy against the count. What is certain is that the count died from a wound on 21 August 1622 when travelling in his carriage with his friend Don Luis Méndez de Haro. A masked man had pierced him with the blade of a Valencian crossbow near the church of San Ginés. This scene represents the moment in which the lifeless body has been taken to the doorway of the palace of the Count of Oñate, the residence of Villamediana´s father, "where the whole Court attended to see the wound". This is the phrase with which the painting was illustrated in the catalogue of the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1871, belonging to Francisco de Quevedo´s work "Great Annals of Fifteen Days".
Díez García, José Luis, "La muerte del Conde de Villamediana", de Manuel Castellano (1826-1880) y sus dibujos preparatorios, 1988, p.96-109
