The infanta María Amalia of Spain as a Child, Holding a Book

In 1847 this work was transferred to Museo del Prado and was catalogued as ‘retrato de la S.a infanta Da Carlota Reyna de Portugal’ [portrait of Infanta Carlota Queen of Portugal] by Joaquín Inza (1736–1811). The work complements a group of portraits of the infantes as well as a portrait of Prince Ferdinand. Arturo Ansón Navarro (2012) identified the model as the twelve-year-old Infanta Maria Amalia (1779–1798) and attributed the portrait to Ramón Bayeu for both stylistic reasons and for its documented relationship with a series of portraits of the royal family painted by Bayeu around 1791. According to these documents, Ramón Bayeu, appointed chamber painter on 20 April 1791, painted several portraits of the children of Charles IV and Queen Maria Luisa at the Royal Site of Aranjuez in that year. Six of the kings´ children were alive at the time, one of whom, the Infanta Carlota Joaquina (1775–1830), Queen of Portugal from 1785, had already left the Spanish court. The others were the Infantas Maria Amalia (1779–1798) and Maria Luisa (1782–1824), Prince Ferdinand (1784–1833), Infante Carlos Maria Isidro (1788–1855) and Infanta Maria Isabel (1789–1848). Livinio Stuyck, director of la Real Fábrica de Tapices [Royal Tapestry Factory], referred to some of these portraits in a memorial addressed to Charles IV on 13 April 1791, in which he complained about the shortage of tapestry cartoons and of Ramón Bayeu´s inactivity in this work. He reported that Bayeu excused himself ‘because he was busy with the portraits of the Sereníssimas Señoras Infantas’, as well as the painting of the altar of the Escuelas Pías de Lavapiés (Ansón Navarro 2012, p. 181). Furthermore, in a letter to the Count of Lerena in the first half of May 1791, Francisco Bayeu asked him to mediate so that the king would increase his brother Ramón´s salary. He explicitly mentioned, as a particular commendation, that ‘Their Majesties saw the portraits my brother has painted and liked them very much. Then, they commissioned him to paint the others of his Royal Family’ (Ansón Navarro 2012, p. 181). On 22 July 1791 Ramón Bayeu was appointed effective chamber painter with a salary increased from 15,000 to 20,000 reales de vellón. Finally, ‘the portraits of the royalty’ are recorded in an invoice issued by Ramón Bayeu on 30 June 1791 for the ‘expenses of colours, payment of the miller and others incurred during the Aranjuez journey of the present year of 1791’ (Archivo General de Palacio, Reigns, Carlos IV, Casa, leg. 50, exp. 1). From this documentation, it can be deduced that Ramón Bayeu first painted the Infantas Maria Amalia and Maria Luisa. Then, once he had received the royal approval, he painted the portrait of "the rest of the royalty", specifically Infante Carlos Maria Isidro (P004719), Infanta Maria Isabel (P004718) and Prince Ferdinand (P006145). Due to its size and composition, the portrait of Infanta Maria Amalia as a young woman with a book is a companion work for that of her sister, Maria Luisa, holding a map of Spain and Portugal (formerly P003246; destroyed in a fire at the Ministry of the Interior in 1788; reproduced in Ansón Navarro 2012, p. 182, fig. 119, erroneously entitled ‘Infanta Maria Amalia of Spain’, Museo Nacional del Prado, deposited in Palacio Real in Madrid). Both portraits are recorded as such, without indicating the artist, in the 1814 Inventory of Palacio Real: ‘Two yards high by a yard and a half wide, the 1st Portrait of Infanta Maria Amalia and the 2nd of Infanta Maria Luisa Holding a Map of Spain in her hand’. The register corroborates the identity of the sitters.