Pedro Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo Silva y Mendoza Salm Salm, XIII duque del Infantado (Madrid, 1768-1841), fue ministro de Estado y presidente del Gobierno (1824-1826).El duque está retratado de cuerpo entero, a sus cincuenta y nueve años, ante un paisaje de campo abierto. Viste uniforme de capitán general, sobre el que luce la gran cruz y banda de la orden de Carlos III e insignia y banda del Toi
A depiction of the port of Naples on 6 October 1759, when Charles of Bourbon (1716-1788) left for Spain, where he would reign under the name of Carlos III. son of Felipe V (1683-1746) and Isabel de Farnesio (1692-1776), Carlos was king of Naples and Sicily until his brother, Fernando VI (1713-1759) died without issue, obliging Carlos to return to Spain. The scene shows the bay of Naples with the v
This painting depicts the moment when the Spanish fleet commanded by the Marquis of La Victoria leaves the port of Naples after having taken aboard the new monarch, Charles III, and his family. Accompanied by a considerable retinue, they were bound for Barcelona to begin their Spanish reign. The work bears the following inscription: His Catholic Majesty Embarking on the 6th day of October 1759 in
Sketch for the fresco, The Surrender of Granada, at the old formal dining room in Madrid´s Royal Palace, from 1763.
Francis of Austria (1768-1835) was the son of Leopold and Maria Luisa, Grand Duke and Duchess of Tuscany, and the grandson of Charles III of Spain. He was the last Holy Roman Emperor, becoming the first Emperor of Austria. Francis was also the father-in-law of Napoleon. He is depicted wearing the emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
In the past various authors have expressed their scepticism about the attribution of the painting to Rembrandt. However, the Rembrandt Research Project includes it in the Corpus of 1986 as an original work, and this is supported by the technical study conducted at the Museo del Prado that year. As for the signature, the unsteadiness of the stroke and, above all, the yellow colour make it dubious.
A preparatory sketch for the painting of the same name, which has disappeared from the Museo del Prado’s collections. It commemorated the ransom of a large number of captives in Algiers in 1768 by order of Charles III. The memory of this king was exalted during the reign of his grandson, Ferdinand VII, as a model for the prestige of the monarchy
This composition depicts the triumphal return to Jerusalem of David and the Israelite army after defeating Goliath, a biblical episode narrated in the Book of Samuel. The painting was signed and dated by the two artists a year apart. The landscape was probably completed first by Brueghel and the figures added a year later by Van Stalbent.
Traditionally catalogued as a work from Tintoretto´s youth, the dating of this painting has been moved to the late fifteen-seventies by recent studies. The artist draws on the Bible story (Judith 13, 9-11) but his reading of the subject is not erotic. Here, Judith wears her finest clothing to seduce Holofernes, rather than appearing nude, as was habitual in Italian Renaissance art. The action take
Around 1625, Peter Paul Rubens was commissioned by the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, Governor of the Southern Netherlands, to design twenty tapestries which would exalt the mystery of the Eucharist for the convent of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid. David Teniers III copied four of these works in large in 1673.
The illustrious soldier, Antonio Ricardos y Carrillo, is depicted by Goya in the battle dress of a Captain General, with the sash of the Order of Carlos III and the plaque of that same order on his dress coat. The scallop of the Order of Santiago on his lapel and the triple braid on his cuffs complete the symbols of this general´s high rank. The portrait was made shortly after his death, as he was
Daughter of the Empress María Teresa Habsburg and the Emperor Francisco I of Lorena, María Carolina Habsburg-Lorena (Vienna, 1752-1814) married Ferdinand IV of Naples in 1768, and bore seventeen children. According to Benedetto Croce, Napoleon called her “the only man in the kingdom of Naples”. She is shown here sumptuously dressed and bejeweled, against a landscape of distant trees
A panoramic representation of a celebration held, perhaps, in the Prince´s Theater in Madrid. The boxes are filled with people watching the crowd dancing on the ground floor, below. They show various emotions and sentiments, dancing and flirting to the sound of music being played by the orchestra in the main box. The innumerable figures are sketched in with clear, rapid brushstrokes, as was Paret´
Francisco Bayeu, who came from minor nobility, trained in Zaragoza under José Luzán (who, years later, would also teach Francisco de Goya). However, a decisive change in the young Bayeu´s style came about under the influence of Antonio González Velázquez (1723-93), who visited Zaragoza soon after returning from Italy in 1752, carrying models and drawings by his Italian
Around 1625, Peter Paul Rubens was commissioned by the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, Governor of the Southern Netherlands, to design twenty tapestries which would exalt the mystery of the Eucharist for the convent of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid. David Teniers III copied four of these works in large in 1673.
Along with Philip IV and Velázquez, the third name intimately associated with the Buen Retiro Palace is Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares (1587-1645). When Philip IV took the throne in 1621 he was only sixteen years old, and he delegated a considerable part of his work as ruler to Olivares, who was then thirty-four and had proved to be a very skilled politician with an extraor
A youthful looking angel with curly hair imperiously points out the path of freedom to an astonished Saint Peter, depicted as a man of advanced age confined in a prison. In the background, clad in a suit of armour, the gaoler sleeps, impervious to what is going on behind his back. The two main figures are attired in vaguely classical dress: that of the angel is simple but sumptuous, in accordance
Don José de Urrutria y de las Casas (1739-1809), was the only soldier of his day to reach the rank of Field Marshal without being a titled nobleman. He is shown wearing the Cross of Saint George which he received from Catharine of Russia for his actions at the siege of Ochakiv, (Ukraine) in 1789. In 1798 he was removed from all public office due to differences with Manuel Godoy. This portra