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Surrounded by angels, the Holy Family, with Saint Elizabeth and the infant Saint John, receive Saint Louis, King of France. The background combines architecture and curtains. This work is organized like a large stage set, using the infant Saint John and an adjacent lamb to invite the viewer to participate. The dynamic and complex composition with its brilliant and expansive colors recalls models f
Sketch for the fresco adorning the ceiling of the Sala de Maria Luisa in the Casa del Labrador at Aranjuez. Beneath Flora in flight is the Earth goddess, Cybele, to whom some farmers pay their respects. On one side is Apollo, god of the sun, with the allegories of the Tagus and Jarama rivers that meet in Aranjuez. On the other is Ceres with sheaves of corn.
Juan Francisco Alfonso de Pimentel Ponce de León, 10th Count and 7th Duke of Benavente (1584-1652), is portrayed more than half length with a whole host of attributes that confirm is supreme military rank in the Spanish army. In addition to gentleman-in-waiting to Phillip IV, he was appointed captain general in charge of frontier defense during the Portuguese uprising (1641) and participate
Like many other works by Andrea di Lione, Jacob’s journey, c.1635-65, was previously attributed to Genoese painter Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto). It is one of the most successful landscapes with figures by Lione, who first studied with battle painter Aniello Falcone (1607-1656) and later developed a more bucolic manner under the influence of Castiglione, whom he lived alongside in
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.
An elaborate garland of flowers, fruit and animals frames a painting representing the Virgin Mary with the Christ Chile on her right arm and a crown of flowers in her left hand. Paintings of the Virgin framed with garlands were prized in the Flemish world, where they served as a response to the Protestant Reform that negated the validity of representations of the Virgin or of saints. Brueghel resp
Marie Louise of Bourbon (1662–1689)—or d’Orléans, as she was the daughter of the Duke d’Orléans—is represented as the Queen of Spain. Forced to abandon depictions adhering to the conventions of French portraiture in Pierre Mignard’s circle, she is here presented according to the traditional line of Spanish court portraiture. The symbols that reveal the personality given to the sitter
Dressed in French fashion from the second decade of the nineteenth century and wearing a stylish floral diadem on her head, the duchess holds a piece of music in her hands, alluding to her love of music and singing. This is Goya´s last known portrait of an aristocratic lady. Its vibrant, rapid technique still recalls the affected, multicolored portraits from the eighteenth century, but its way of
This painting depicts the baptism of Prince Juan. It is based on the description of that event from Historia de los Reyes Católicos (History of the Catholic Kings) by Andrés Bernáldez, published in 1856. The documentary rigor of this text is transferred to the canvas, so we can speak here of the archeological veracity with which Pradilla reconstructed that historical event. Th
Documents at Palencia Cathedral cast light on this Crucifixion’s original location -the central row of the main altarpiece at that cathedral- and its author: Juan de Flandes (doc. 1496-1519). They also offer information about this panel between 1509, when that Flemish painter was commissioned to paint it, and 1944, when the Cathedral management sold it. Those same documents indicate that Palencia
This heroic full-length portrait presents the king under a red-and-gold curtain with a landscape in the background. He wears a crown and, under a blue tunic, armor. His right hand rests on the head of a lion whose paw rests, in turn, on the coat of arms of Castile and León, territories ruled by Henry IV. The arms are surrounded by pomegranate flowers with the slogan, AGRO DULCE, an insignia
Velázquez painted The Coronation of the Virgin for Queen Elizabeth of Bourbon`s new prayer chapel at Madrid`s Alcázar palace, where it was intended to complete the series of nine paintings by Alessandro Turchi on The Feasts of Our Lady that Cardinal Gaspar de Borja y Velasco had sent to Madrid from Rome in 1635 or earlier. This was Velázquez`s last religious painting. The pray
Born as princess of Aragon in 1271, the daughter of Peter III "the Great" and grand-daughter of James I "the Conqueror" married King Dinis of Portugal in 1293 and became queen of the country. Like her great-aunt Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, with whom her iconography is often confused, she led a deeply Christian life of charity and sacrifice. When her husband died in 1325 she took her vows as a Clar
A model for the tapestry on the same subject that belongs to a series of eight about the Greek hero. The Story of Achilles is smaller than other projects by Rubens, but the quality of its sketches, models and tapestries make it one of his most important.Achilles vowed to take revenge on Hector for the death of his friend Patroclus. His anger with Agamemnon had subsided and he decided to take up ar
The panel has been trimmed on all four sides but little of the painted surface can have been lost. It is made from two boards of Baltic oak, both from the same tree; the last ring was formed in 1372. Black overpaint conceals areas of damage on our left of the Virgin`s face and on our left of the Child`s head and torso. On our right of the Virgin, a similar area of black overpaint may hide a shadow
Philip II’s two daughters Isabel Clara Eugenia (1566-1633) and Catalina Micaela (1567-1597), were repeatedly portrayed from the time they were very small by Alonso Sánchez Coello, one of the king’s court painters. Those likenesses had the characteristics of court portraits, reflecting not only the sitters’ features and their royal context, but also the type of society and state being depict
This is a fragment of Saint Joseph with the infant Christ, painted for the convent church of San Pascual in Aranjuez, and now in Detroit. Although Giambattista required the help of his son Domenico to undertake the project, this small angel seems to be entirely painted by his own hand.
Bosch thus shows how man, irrespective of his social class or place of origin, is so possessed by the desire to enjoy and acquire material possessions that he allows himself to be deceived or seduced by the Devil. Thus the artist proposes that we should renounce earthly goods and the delights of the senses in order to avoid eternal damnation. The painting offers an exemplum of a different type to
