Spain honouring the Fine Arts
1833. Grisaille, Tempera on canvas.Not on display
While awaiting the completion of the relief designed by Ramón Barba (1767–1831), which was to decorate the attic of the Museum’s west facade, the facades had to be decorated for the swearing-in of the Infanta Isabella as crown princess in 1833. Therefore, the three facades of the Museum were temporally decorated. A painting imitating the relief was placed in its designated space on the west facade. The press described it as follows: ‘In the centre of the Attic there is a bas-relief depicting a subject which alludes to the celebrity of the day; the young Carlos Rivera –the same man who was awarded first prize for painting at the last exhibition– drew it and Julián Verdú painted it’. Fortunately, this painting, a huge grisaille, is now at the Museo del Prado. It shows a different composition to the one finally sculpted, although most of the figures included by Barba are the same. According to the newspaper report, the very young painter Carlos Luis de Ribera, then aged 18, made the design, and Julián Verdú, an artist born in Alcoy, painted it. However, the documentation kept in the Royal Palace archives, dated 14 July 1833, names the artist Francisco Martínez Salamanca as the painter of the grisaille. He oversaw the Museum´s decoration for the Royal Functions of His Majesty´s Oath and he was also responsible for the account of the drawing and for the bas-relief painting that adorned the plaque in the attic of the main peristyle. This composition combines the proposals of Villanueva and Hermoso and corresponds quite closely to the description published in 1835. Minerva, as protector of the Fine Arts, distributes the crowns of Merit, and the figures of the muses can also be seen. On the right, Fame announces the glory of Merit by blowing the trumpets, and History writes about the Allegory of Time. The current poor state of the grisaille is a result of it being outdoors for nine years.
Azcue Brea, Leticia, "Un Museo Real necesita esculturas' En:
El Museo del Prado en 1819: opinión pública, cultura y política., Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2020, p.167-178 [174 nt.66]