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This is a posthumous portrait of the monarch. He appears standing, in full-length, and dressed in a simple captain-general’s uniform, upon which he bears the grand laureate cross and sash of the military order of San Fernando (Saint Ferdinand), as well as the decorations of the Golden Fleece hanging from his collar and a cummerbund and a sabre girdle around his waist. He poses inside a palatial sa
Two nymphs and numerous cupids hold a garland that frames a medallion where an offering to Ceres is depicted. The goddess of the Earth and of agriculture is shown being crowned by Spring while allegorical figures of the other seasons offer her their fruits. The cupids hold objects alluding to the signs of the Zodiac. Thus, the passage of time and the Earth´s life cycles are emphasized. This work i
The scene depicts a group of naked young women being surprised by a male who violently thrusts aside the reeds behind which they are concealed, while some cupids retreat in fear. The work illustrates a classical theme taken from Ovid´s Metamorphoses that appears to narrate the culminating moment in the mythical story of the god Pan and Syrinx, a wood nymph of Arcadia, which takes place by th
This Self-Portrait’s small size indicates that it was intended for private and intimate use, as a gift to someone of interest to Goya. It came from the heirs of Tomás de Berganza, a butler to the Duke and Duchess of Alba who continued in the Duchess’s service after the Duke’s death. This provenance fueled a mid-19th-century romantic legend about Goya’s involvement with the Duchess, as the w
This bust-length portrait entered the royal collections as a donation by the widow of the Duke of Arco, gentlemanin- waiting, Equerry and Master of the Horse to Philip V. In his recreational estate at El Pardo, De Arco possessed a group of six portraits of gentlemen by El Greco whose provenance is now unknown.This group would come to constitute the principal holdings of portraits by the artist now
This female effigy was once attributed to the Andalusian artist José Gutiérrez de la Vega (Seville, 1791–Madrid, 1865) who worked in the pictorial tradition of Murillo. However, this claim became untenable from a formal point of view after analysing the aesthetic and technical characteristics of the piece, and in 1999 the work was given its current attribution. The painting depicts a
A fire in El Pardo Palace on March 13, 1604, destroyed the portraits in the Hall of Kings. These portraits had been painted by the finest artists of the time, including Titian, Antonio Moro, Alonso Sánchez Coello, and Sofonisba Anguisciola. Encased in stucco frames attached to the walls of the gallery, which had been organized by Sánchez Coello at the behest of Philip II, these portr
This emblematic picture is undoubtedly the best-known work on a social theme produced by Sorolla in his youth. It is also an especially good example of how fully the artist became involved in a genre which, at the time, was of particular relevance in Madrid’s official artistic circles, where Sorolla was determined to receive his first public recognition. The depth of its meaning is probably indica
The numerous formal portraits painted by Federico over the course of his career -large-format works generally intended to hang in the capacious homes of Elizabethan aristocrats- include some of his most spectacular canvases. The present splendid work from the Museo del Prado dates from the artist’s fully mature period and is marked by a freer touch, a deep and rich use of paint and an attentively
The presence of portraits of children in the painting collections of the Spanish Austrians can be found all throughout the sixteenth century. In the 1570s this sub-genre became more highly developed at the hands of Alonso Sánchez Coello, who painted the daughters of Philip III on several occasions, creating images which, while they reflected the girls’ growth, observed all the formal stereo
Alonso Sánchez Coello was court painter to Philip II and he united two different pictorial styles developed in the mid sixteenth century by Titian and Anthonis Mor respectively. Sánchez Coello´s images are austere in their presentation, yet they include certain symbolic elements that place the sitters in a suitable context easily legible to the viewer. The sitters´ dress and certain
In this representation of Saint John of Capistrano, the painter has faithfully followed his traditional iconography. Dressed in a Franciscan habit with a red cross on it, he stands beneath a shining star. He holds a standard created by Saint Bernardino of Sienna—John of Capistrano was his disciple when he entered the Order of Saint Francis— with the nails of Christ´s crucifixion and his IHS
It is a fully finished drawing in the artist’s characteristic compact style. This is evidenced by the neat arrangement of the framing lines that encircle the medallion. Just as in the burin engravings, to which it shares similarities in its handling of line, the key to this drawing lies in the study of the interplay between light and shadow (chiaroscuro), effectively achieved by keeping the white
The drawing is pasted down onto an eighteenth-century Italian backing. There seems lacking connection with the work of the Sienese master Francesco Vanni.
The composition is cut out in a mixtilinear arch form as if it were a ceiling medallion. In the lower register, the body of Saint Restituta lies in a boat, transported by angels. In the upper register, Saint Januarius, in glory, prays to the Virgin and Child that the body of the Saint may remain in Naples.It is an inverted copy –via an engraving– of the canvas by Luca Giordano on the ceiling of th
Dating Paret’s drawings is very complex when they cannot be linked to the creative process of a documented project, be it a painting, urban decoration or book illustration. This is due to two reasons: first, there is scarcity of drawings that cannot be associated with other known works by the artist; and second, Paret’s mastery of technique from the beginning to the end of his life makes it diffic
Medallón circular, en mármol de Italia, con una cabeza femenina de perfil, tamaño algo mayor que el natural y bajo relieve. Es un retrato de mujer que ciñe diadema adornada de perlas y mira hacia la derecha del espectador. Parte del fondo es de un añadido realizado en el Taller de Restauración.
En este medallón se representa la cabeza de un joven imberbe hasta la zona clavicular. Su pelo corto se articula en ondulados mechones falciformes que se arremolinan movidos sobre la frente. Aunque la estructura y medidas del tondo son muy similares a las de los medallones lombardos, como los que ornamentan la capilla Colleoni o la Certosa de Pavía, la apariencia y estilo del rostro revela su vinc
