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This full-length portrait by Pompeo Batoni shows a young English nobleman dressed in a scarlet coat, posing against the Roman countryside. The picture conforms to the Grand Tour portrait model of which Batoni, together with other artists such as Anton Raphael Mengs, became a leading practitioner, attaining success particularly among British patrons. Here the sitter is holding a walking stick and a
These two paintings (P7804 and P7805) are part of a series on similar subjects, yet they stand out among Giandomenico`s work. These works are small depictions of everyday life in Venice, exquisitely rendered with a very agile touch that reflects the technical skills Giandomenico learnt from his father. This genre work is infrequent in Giandomenico`s oeuvre. In Spain the only known works of this so
A member of a dynasty of artists that began with his grandfather, the sculptor Pablo González Velázquez (1664-1727), Zacarías González Velázquez initially trained with his father, the painter Antonio González Velázquez (1723-94). In 1777, he joined the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, an institution to which he remained tied for the rest
Daughter of Philip V and Isabella Farnese, the sitter was born in 1718. At the age of four her marriage to Louis XV was arranged, but this was broken off when she was seven for reasons of international politics. In 1729 María Ana married José, Prince of Brazil and future King of Portugal. Largillierre specialised in portraiture. He painted the present canvas in Paris, using a virtuos
Saint Barbara was a third-century Christian martyr imprisoned in a tower and later decapitated by her father, Dioscoro, as punishment for not wanting to marry and refusing to profess paganism. Goya depicts the saint with her various symbols, with a monstrance in her right hand and the palm frond of martyrdom in the left. She wears a crown as she was a princess. The tower is behind her, and a repre
La joven dama, que aparenta alrededor de veinte años, está sentada junto a un velador, en el que se ven varios medallones y un libro, y sobre el que descansa el codo izquierdo. Luce un magnífico traje de raso gris y rosa, con manteleta y bocamangas de encaje. La blancura de su piel y la finura de su talle le infunden una fragilidad delicada y elegante. De rostro afilado y sereno, en el que resalta
Francisco Bayeu worked as a court painter to Charles III from 1767; by 1787 -the date of this small portrait- he had produced a considerable number of decorations for the royal palaces and important churches. He reached the zenith of his brilliant career as an official painter and academician around this time, being named Director of Painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 17
This refined portrait is the only one known to date of the Marquis of Esquilache (1699-1785). He accompanied Charles III to Madrid and was appointed Minister of the Treasury. The inkwell and staff of office allude to his many Neapolitan titles, while the letter destined Alla sua maestà delle due Sicilie points to his links with the King.
This still life is one of the forty-four such painting which Meléndez painted for the natural history cabinet of Charles Prince of Asturias. The artist had conceived this vast visual natural history of the flora and fauna of Spain in still-life paintings as the greatest work of his career. The project was curtailed by the prince in 1777, however, due to the large number of pictures already
Luca Giordano decorated three spaces in the Casón, an outbuilding of the Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid. The first was the central hall, which still exists, where he painted the fresco Apotheosis of the Spanish Monarchy, as well as sixteen scenes of the Labours of Hercules, now sadly lost.Two galleries that flanked this hall were destroyed in the late nineteenth century. The eastern one led to
This work shows politician, poet, playwright and tutor to Queen Elizabeth II, Manuel José Quntana (Madrid, April 11, 1772- Madrid, March 11, 1857) on the day of his coronation in the Senate as Illustrious Poet (March 25, 1855).
Some boys whose clothing indicates they are from a wealthy family, play in the country, inflating a bladder under the watchful eyes of their nannies, who converse in the background. This is one of Goya's first depictions of the world of children and it already perfectly captures the candor an vivacity of children's games. Designed to hang over a door, this is one of Goya's cartoons for the tapestr
Seated and seen from behind, a boy plays with a goldfinch. The bird’s mate is perched high up on a branch of the slender tree, its sinuous line emphasising the verticality of the composition.This cartoon was for one of the tapestries now in the Monastery of El Escorial. Like its pair Boy with Tree (P-789), this is a design for a narrow panel to hang between the corner of a room and a door or windo
In October 1777, Goya received a commission to paint 20 cartoons for tapestries intended to decorate the walls of the Prince and Princess of Asturias´s bedchamber and its anteroom in the palace of El Pardo, north of Madrid, while he was completing designs of other tapestries for their dining room. This would be the third set of cartoons commissioned from the young Goya and proposed by Anton Raphae
This cartoon delivered in 1777 was for a tapestry to hang over the door of the king and queen´s dining room at the El Pardo Palace. It depicts a popular scene with five female figures. Two are playing percussion instruments that are shown in detail. The one standing on the right plays a round tambourine with jingles, holding it in her left hand and striking it with her right. The one sitting
The most famous of Esquivel´s pieces and a leading work of Spanish Romanticism. Considered the maximum graphical testimony to the intellectual atmosphere during the reign of Isabel II (1830 - 1904), this canvas depicts a fictitious meeting of Esquivel´s most relevant cultural contemporaries. The composition combines the complexities of a group portrait with the scheme of Flemish Baroque cabinet po
Four young men struggle with a young bull in an attempted bullfight or an effort to control the animal. Behind the wall, several spectators watch this particular bullfight. The youth dressed in red has sometimes been thought to be a self-portrait of Goya. This improvised bullfight takes place in an unlikely urban setting. A pair to The Tobacco Guards (P-788), these scenes of male arrogance contras
This cartoon, the pair to The Washerwomen (P-786), depicts three women and four elegantly dressed children with their dog on a country outing. Goya masterfully utilizes the figures in different planes to establish relations between foreground and background, with the shepherds´ glances answered by the woman whose back is to the viewer. The peaceful everyday country scene thus becomes a repre
