Considered to be, with good reason, the most beautiful nude in nineteenth-century Spanish painting, this work provides eloquent testimony of the modernity that made Rosales stand out in the Spanish artistic panorama of his time. He would have earned himself a prominent place among the era´s artistic vanguard in Europe if his brilliant career had not been cut short by his premature death. Neither a
According to the Bible, Tobias was standing by a river when he was attacked by a giant fish. He was saved by his guardian angel. The painting shows the protagonist seeking refuge from the angel. The latter is turned slightly to the left. He points at the fish with his left hand, calming the boy. The closeness of this work to the aesthetics of the German Nazarine painters or the Italian Prerafaelis
Rosales depicts the moment when the Catholic Queen dictates her last will and testament at Medina del Campo on 12 October 1504, just days before she died. Isabel stands out in a royal chamber almost in darkness, in a canopy bed, with a medal of the Order of Saint James on her bosom. The white sheets contrast with the muted colors of the other personages. The only note of color is the red robe of a
This painting captures a moment in the Battle of Tetuan, when Spanish and Moroccan troops fought each other as part of the war between those two countries in 1859 and 1860. The Moroccan troops shoot and gesticulate while, on the Spanish side, the presence of cavalry and a canon auger success in this skirmish. Rosales entered this work in a painting contest on this subject, which was won by Vicente
After revolutionizing the painting of his time with Queen Isabel la Católica dictating her Last Will and Testament (P4624), Rosales again shook the very foundations of the Spanish art world when he presented the present historical canvas at the 1871 Exposición Nacional. This is the work that he always considered his masterpiece, and it earned him a first medal. It was always very pol
This study is an initial idea for the composition of the final canvas which the artist devised through numerous preparatory studies and drawings, the majority in the Prado. Rosales tried out the colour, lighting and arrangement of the figures, most of them grouped on the right including the seated Ferdinand the Catholic.
This is Rosales’s last history painting, which was left unfinished on his death. It reveals his working method, which is relatively free in this case. The retinue of Joan of Castile, who is anxious to meet up with her husband in Flanders, attempt to convince her to take shelter during bad weather in the castle, located in Medina del Campo, Valladolid.
One of the most important works by Rosales to have remained in private hands, this canvas exemplifies the artist’s adaptation of history painting to a small format characteristic of the end of his short life. It depicts the sad fate of John II of Aragon’s daughter, who was exiled on her father’s orders to France where she was eventually murdered by poisoning.