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The first Poesie presented to Prince Philip were Danaë (1553, The Wellington Collection) and Venus and Adonis (1554, Museo del Prado, P422), versions of other previous works, but endowed with all the prestige of the commissioning party. In turn, these works became models for numerous replicas (Danaë receiving the Golden Rain, 1560-65, Museo del Prado, P425).Danaë depicts the moment
This portrait is one of Dürer’s great creations. It offers a three-quarters view of an unidentified person who occupies most of the canvas. Dürer places him in front of a dark background that bears some touches of blue. The light enters from the left, bringing out the features of the face and hands and projecting the sitter’s shadow onto the background at the right, where the date and th
Philip IV´s sister, Maria, was born in El Escorial in 1606. As a result of her royal lineage, she was destined to become yet another pawn in the play of matrimonial alliances that the European courts found so useful. As a marriageable infanta, marrying her was first considered a means of improving diplomatic relations with England, but those efforts failed as a result of religious incompatabilites
Mounted on a white steed and flanked by an angel bearing a flag, Saint James gallops over a multitude of fallen Moors and horses. The battle scene occupies a rocky landscape in the middle ground. This canvas is a sketch for the elliptical dome at the entrance to the Royal Palace’s chapel and was painted by Giaquinto between 1756 and 1757. The canvas and its corresponding fresco are clearly derived
A surgeon extracts a stone from a patient´s head. The scene takes place in an urban setting, probably a market. An aged helper holds the patient´s head, along with a youth, who prepares the unguents. Meanwhile, another patient grimaces grotesquely while waiting his turn. Hemessen criticizes the defrauding of patients by depicting the doctor with a sarcastic expression that reveals him as an impost
The Chronological Series of the Kings of Spain was a museum project planned in 1847 by José de Madrazo to adorn four of the new rooms at the Real Museo de Pinturas (Royal Museum of Paintings), then under his direction. At the height of the confrontation between the supporters of Isabella II and the Carlists, who denied the sovereign’s right to occupy the throne because she was a woman, the
This painting celebrates the freeing of the Swiss town of Constance from its besiegement by Swedish troops under General Horn, who sought to cut off communication between imperial troops and Spanish soldiers at La Valtellina and the Duchy of Milan. Along with The Storming of Rheinfelden (P637) and The Capture of Breisach (P859), this is one of the three paintings at the Hall of Realms that commemo
Standing on clouds at the center of the composition, Moses points toward the sunbeams shining down from the sky. Beneath him, Abraham and Isaac are accompanied by the sacrificial lamb. To the left of the composition, Saint Laurence and Saint Steven await the palm frond of martyrdom carried by angels; and to the right, we see the strong women of the Bible and King David.This composition belongs to
Moses Striking Water from the Rock and The Bronze Serpent are related to frescos on the same subjects in the apse of the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. Those decorations commissioned in 1743 by the procurer general of the Cistercians and abbot of Santa Croce, Raimondo Besozzi, were paid by Pope Benedict XIV. As was his custom, Giaquinto painted various versions of the compositions
Later variant of the painting Saint Jerome in his Study (1533, Madrid, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, inv. 611). Its painter, who has been tentatively identified as Jan van Remmerswale, worked with his own patterns developed from Marinus’ compositions, but used a different technique to transfer them onto the panel. In contrast to Marinus, his paintings show a linear underdrawing ex
As part of the Royal Collection, the City Treasurer and his Wife (the so-called Money Changer and his Wife) is one of the few paintings by Marinus in Spain that can be traced to the eighteenth century, and one which played a decisive role in the rediscovery of the painter’s work. However, when it was first recorded in the collection of Isabel Farnesio in 1746 it was attributed to Lucas de Olanda (
The Chronological Series of the Kings of Spain was a museum project planned in 1847 by José de Madrazo to adorn four of the new rooms at the Real Museo de Pinturas (Royal Museum of Paintings), then under his direction. At the height of the confrontation between the supporters of Isabella II and the Carlists, who denied the sovereign’s right to occupy the throne because she was a woman, the
Pedro Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo Silva y Mendoza Salm Salm, XIII duque del Infantado (Madrid, 1768-1841), fue ministro de Estado y presidente del Gobierno (1824-1826).El duque está retratado de cuerpo entero, a sus cincuenta y nueve años, ante un paisaje de campo abierto. Viste uniforme de capitán general, sobre el que luce la gran cruz y banda de la orden de Carlos III e insignia y banda del Toi
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
Having trained in Venice, probably with Giovanni Bellini, Lorenzo Lotto worked in Treviso (1503-1506), Recanati (1506- 1508) and Rome (c. 1508-1510) before settling in Bergamo.There, between 1513 and 1526, he painted for influential families such as the Tassi, Bonghi, Brembati and Cassotti.The Cassotti, wealthy textile merchants originating from Valle Imagna, used the arts to demonstrate their soc
Corrado Giaquinto had frequent contacts with Spain as of 1735 or earlier. But the death of Jacopo Amigoni in 1752 led to his being summoned to Madrid the next year. During his stay in the Spanish Court, he earned the highest honors given to a painter in that era. He became First Painter to the Court in August 1753 and director of the Academy of San Fernando that December. His main mission was the
The Birth of the Virgin at the Museo del Prado, the only painting on this subject by the hand of Luis de Morales and a work that remained unpublished until 2003, and the two pieces at the Museum Schloss Fasanerie in Eichenzell, The Presentation in the Temple and The Visitation, which are little known in Spain, belong in all probability, as Gabriele Finaldi pointed out, to one and the same set, a j
Aline Masson, the painter´s model, contemplates the signet -sealed envelope she holds in her right hand, which presumably arrived with the bouquet of flowers she holds in her left. The blue robe with cottony white edging gives the scene a homey feeling appropriate to the subject, but wisely used by the painter to bring out the young woman´s fine, pale skin. This work is approached in the style of
