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Venice was the predominant subject of most of Rico’s paintings, since he spent the summer months there for over thirty years. He was particularly interested in the bustling commercial life of the docks. Despite its apparent realism, this is an adapted view of Venice; Rico has removed the imposing prison building, which prompted the legend of the famous Bridge of Sighs. Legado de
Retrato de María Josefa Amalia de Sajonia Borbón-Parma (Dresde, Alemania, 1803-Aranjuez, Madrid, 1829), reina consorte de España y tercera esposa (1819) del rey Fernando VII. Peinada con el cabello recogido con peineta de carey y bucles a ambos lados de la frente, luce la banda y cruz de la orden de María Luisa. La factura del retrato y la madurez del semblante de la reina, notablemente más adulto
Born in 1784 in El Escorial, Fernando VII was Carlos IV eldest son by Maria Luisa. In 1815, after abolishing the Constitution, he reined as an absolute monarch. He appears wearing the symbols of his royal condition, with a purple, ermine-lined robe, and a scepter with the coat of arms of Castile and Leon in his right hand. The sash of the Order of Carlos III crosses his chest, and he also bears th
During his visit to Valencia in 1802, the Literary University of the city gave the King this painting which shows the university, personified as a young matron, introducing the royal family to the various faculties: Theology, Law, Philosophy and Medicine. They are accompanied by the goddess Minerva, who points to Peace, Victory and Abundance, who fly over this symbolic reception.
Rico painted the Guadarrama Mountains years before the railway made it accessible to artists. That is clear in some watercolours and this oil painted at the León Pass, which he sent to the National Exhibition of 1858. The decreasing succession of trees and mountains is a device typical of Romantic painting, but Rico’s interest in depicting the types of moss and grass reflect a clearly reali
Este lienzo es una de las obras fundamentales de la pintura del Romanticismo español, así como el primer cuadro importante de este género realizado por Federico de Madrazo a lo largo de su fecundísima carrera, que dedicaría después de forma prácticamente exclusiva a la pintura de retratos. Realizado en tamaño poussinesco es decir, a un tercio del natural, siguiendo la moda académica de esos años.
In the mid-nineteenth century Federico de Madrazo produced some of the most successful portraits of the Spanish bourgeoisie during the reign of Isabel II (1833-68), presenting them with the opulence that their social status demanded. In addition to his remarkable artistic ability, his female portraits are outstanding for their depiction of the accessories and adornments. These details are emphasis
Martín Rico was one of the leading Spanish landscape painters of the second half of the nineteenth-century. He was particularly interested in depicting tranquil stretches of water, and during his long stay in France he often painted the countryside around the rivers Seine and Marne near Paris. Here, using a very limited range of colours, he arranges the composition in parallel horizontal st
Don Antonio Ugarte, a prominent member of the entourage of Ferdinand VII, and his wife, posed for the first painter to the king, with an evident penchant for ostentation. He is wearing the full-dress uniform of the king’s secretary, including the cane and hat resting on the table, and also boasts different badges of office and honours. She, dressed in Imperial garb and adorned with splendid jewels
David Roberts was one of the British romantic painters who traveled through Spain, capturing images that best represented the landscape and picturesque aspects of this country, especially in Andalusia. Here, he offers an image of the Guadalquivir River where it flows through Seville, with the Torre de Oro (Golden Tower) as the protagonist. The comings and goings of the boats on the water or berthe
Genaro Pérez Villaamil (El Ferrol, 1807-Madrid, 1854) can be considered the most significant and influential Spanish Romantic landscape painter and an artist who had an intense interest, characteristic of that period, in depictions of cities and their monuments.The small size of the tin plates on which theses scenes are painted allowed Villaamil to work from the motif, as he generally did w
The Scottish artist David Roberts travelled around Spain between 1832 and 1833, en route to Africa. Fascinated by its Islamic and Christian monuments, his works present an exotic and literary vision of Spain. This canvas, executed after his return to London, depicts a colourful and idealised view of the Villaviciosa Chapel, beneath the pierced vault constructed under Al-Hakam II.
A serene landscape with the Bidasoa River´s mouth at the Cantabrian Sea, as seen from the sands of Fuenterrabía. This landscape, along with sixteen other works, was presented by Rico at the Universal Exhibition of 1878 in Paris, where it was qualified as “spiritual, compositions that appear to have been made with drops of light on the end of the brush.” This work entered the Prado Museum as
Carlos Luis de Ribera y Fievé, eldest son of the neoclassical painter, Juan Antonio de Ribera, was also a painter and a friend of Federico de Madrazo, who made this portrait while both lived in Paris. It is the result of an agreement that each would paint the image of the other, and then send the works to the annual painting exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid.
This simple, intimate portrait based on a range of grey tones is one of the few known examples of portraiture in the artist´s work. Ribelles may have known the celebrated poet Quintana in his youth through the theatrical and literary circles that both frequented in Madrid. Quintana (1772-1857) was an admirer of Goya and included a poem in his praise in his anthology of 1805.
The Trinity shows Ribera´s confidence in his pictorial possibilities. The tragedy of the scene is emphasized by the use of light and a sumptuous palette. The bluish cadaver of Christ, marked by blood that runs down his side, staining his loincloth and shroud, contrasts with the hieratic appearance of God the Father, who shows us his dead Son, accompanied by the dove of the Holy Ghost. This w
Alessandro Turchi´s The flight into Egypt, early 1630s, was donated to the Museo del Prado by Ferdinand VII, founder of the museum, before 1833. The painting had not been in the Spanish Royal Collection for a long time; in fact it was acquired only a generation earlier by his father, Charles IV, while he was living in exile in Rome following Napoleon’s invasion of Spain. Charles had been an intell
