This cartoon for a tapestry to be placed over a door or window shows a street vendor, a subject based on the popular and very widely distributed etchings by the Bolognese artist Annibale Carracci (1560-1609). This work of extraordinary refinement is notable especially for the boy`s noble pose, a masterly rendition by the artist of the attempts by enlightened reformers to revitalise and dignify man
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
The effect of the majo’s singing and playing is evident in the profound emotion on the face of the woman in the foreground, reflecting the refined sentimentality to which art of this period aspired. This canvas is a close copy of a preparatory sketch by Francisco Bayeu, Ramón’s brother, which was subsequently included in the work Thirteen Preparatory Designs for Cartoons for Tapestries, als
The scene here unfolds in the foreground, which is occupied by a large rocky outcrop and trees and on the right opens onto a luminous landscape enclosed by mountains in the background. The spatial transition between the dark foreground and luminous background is still somewhat awkward. In the figures the brushwork is smooth and uniform, giving the nudes a pearly appearance, whereas in the landscap
Trained from childhood at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, Mariano Sánchez specialized in landscapes and views. Contemporary documents reveal also a talent for miniatures and portraits, which took him to Lisbon in the service of the King of Portugal. In 1781, King Charles III commissioned him to paint a series of 118 vistas of ports, bays, islands, and arsenals in Spain. In 1803, for
Scenes of street vendors proliferated in eighteenth-century Spain, as they had in France, England and Italy, both because of the picturesque nature of their street cries and their apparel, and because they were regarded from then on as a true reflection of national identity. Here, however, Bayeu gives his carnation seller a curiously melancholy air, hitherto unexplained.
This religious scene with its life-size figures, is treated in the sober manner usually applied to scenes from Roman history. It was the first major painting produced by Madrazo whilst training in Paris under Jacques-Louis David, and earned him an increase in his grant from Charles IV, enabling him to continue his studies in Rome.
Moisés sacia la sed del pueblo de Israel durante su travesía del desierto (Exodo, 17, 3-7). Assereto es uno de los pintores más importantes de la escuela genovesa. En su estilo influyeron Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Bernardo Strozzi y Cerano. Adquirido en Sevilla por Isabel de Farnesio, ha sido atribuido a pintores sevillanos, como Roelas, Llanos Valdés o Legote. En 1781 el Conde del Águila decía qu
This preparatory sketch for the large-scale canvas painted by Madrazo in Rome (also on display in this room) reveals various differences with respect to the final composition. Madrazo gave more space to the tent in the upper part of the sketch, which he subsequently reduced. There are also differences in the figures and in the landscape with the camp on the far right, which he enlarged.
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 portrait provides exceptional testimony to Federico de Madrazo´s fully mature style, which made him the greatest Spanish portrait artist of the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Painted at the pinnacle of his career, Madrazo has combined the technical refinement of the French academic portrait -inspired by the work of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, a friend of his father´s- with the a
A handsome dandy gallantly offers fruit to a seated lady accompanied by her maid. This seductive, erotic gesture arouses the young woman’s emotions while in the background a cloaked majo jealously observes the aristocratic delicacy of the amorous encounter. This canvas is a close copy of a preparatory sketch by Francisco Bayeu, Ramón’s brother, which was subsequently included in the work Th
This still life's subject matter, its mixture of fruit and flowers, its use of glass, earthenware and wicker containers, and its stepped composition, are common characteristics of that genre since its earliest decades in Spain. There are, however, certain differentiating aspects that indicate this work is from an advanced period. That is the case of the type of basket holding the apples and pears,
Admired by a group of Roman soldiers while a peasant passes with fishing gear, a grandiose waterfall plunges down from a high mountain. In common with the rest of the series to which this painting belongs, destined for the Casita del Príncipe at El Escorial, this results in the sublime effect characteristic of the landscape painting of the period.
For many years the large-scale definitive version was the only painting of Ferdinand displayed to the public in the museum he had founded. He is shown as commander-in-chief of the Spanish armed forces beside an oak tree that refers to the virtues of the good ruler.
Cartoon for a tapestry in the Ambassadors’ Hall at El Escorial, painted after a sketch by Francisco Bayeu. The seller of ham and sausage, accompanied in the distance by a water seller, is an eighteenth-century Spanish reflection, with the popular costumes of the period, of the tradition of compositions on street vendors that was established in Italy in the early seventeenth century.
Ramón Bayeu, the younger brother of Francisco Bayeu, received similar training to his brother and won first prize in a competition organised by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1766. Beginning in 1775, he worked under the direction of his brother, producing cartoons for tapestries with genre scenes for the Royal Tapestry Manufactory. A skilful painter of frescoes, he was em
This is a preparatory sketch for the painting of the main altarpiece of the Chapel of Saint Anthony at Madrid´s church of San Francisco el Grande. It was part of the decoration of the church promoted by King Carlos III, which was completed in 1781. Seven court painters, all members of the Academy, were commissioned to carry out one of the most important decorative projects of that period, between