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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
Painted in Paris, this is Casado del Alisal’s first known female portrait and one of his works that best summarises the importance of French models, which were in turn influenced by Velázquez. A characteristically Spanish restraint, conveyed by the plain background and dark tonality, contrasts with the figure’s spontaneity and smile, which are more typical of French portraiture. The result
This realistic depiction of a kite that has swooped down on a group of dead woodcocks and a pheasant is striking for the contrast between the bird of prey’s ferocity and the tranquil still-life with game birds set in a flat background landscape. This effect of surprise, typical of a capriccio, was popular at this period.
Christ´s body is taken from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. On the ground, Mary Magdalene extends her arms to him while the Virgin weeps sorrowfully. The depiction of these customary figures is rounded out by the presence of a soldier with renaissance armor and two children, one with a handkerchief tied around his head. These realistic details give Machuca´s scene a special charact
A cartoon painted in 1778 for a tapestry to hang over the dining room door at the el Pardo Palace. Preparatory drawings by the artist´s brother, Francisco Bayeu, are at the Biblioteca Nacional and in a private collection in London.
Considered one of the finest examples of Francisco Domingo´s portraiture, this work shows an old shoemaker -an extraordinarily popular figure in the old neighborhoods of the major cities- over a neutral background. The loose brushstrokes, applied in short, juxtaposed fashion, bring out the sitter´s intense expression, managing to emphasize his face and neck despite the reduced palette. Domingo con
Sobre fondo liso de entonaciones sienas, se recorta el busto del artista representado con la cabeza ligeramente girada hacia el espectador. El soporte de la ejecución es un sólido dibujo que denota un academicismo riguroso, sobre todo en la línea y en la construcción del volumen, que no impide una pincelada suelta y vibrante, especialmente en la cabeza.Ricardo Balaca asiste en la Academia de San F
An enormously versatile painter, Palmaroli also produced the small-format paintings known as tableautins popular with collectors at this period. Following Fortuny, his numerous genre scenes deploy a brilliant chromatic range and an extremely virtuoso technique. They depict inconsequential subjects, often inspired by the 18th century and set in richly decorated interiors that on occasions include i
A street vendor displays the fans he is selling to a beautiful and delicate young woman seated on the ground. The triangular composition and the very low angle of the perspective are perfectly suited to the cartoon`s location over a door, forming part in this case of the decoration of the bedchamber of the Infante Antonio Pascual at the palace of El Pardo.
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.
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
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
