Three figures enjoy tobacco in an expressive manner in the foreground while an onlooker leans through the window. Around a table in the background, another group of figures drinks or plays cards. This is an example of scenes inside taverns with smokers, drinkers and players, which Teniers made during the sixteen thirties. He began with figures by his teacher, Adriaen Brouwer (1605/1606-1638), whic
On a table partially covered by a green tablecloth, the painter has placed a white cloth, delicate gold-worked jars and glasses that reflect the light, a dish with ham, bread and a large basket of peaches and several types of grapes. There is also a half-peeled lemon, typical of Nordic still-lifes. In the background, there is a large red curtain and a gallery with columns. Charged with symbolic an
Painted for the base of the main altarpiece of San Esteban in Valencia (P00838, P00839, P00840, P00841 and P00842), Inspired by Leonardo, both in the definition of the space and in the eloquent expressiveness of the apostles, it also shows Juanes’s close relationship with Raphael. In keeping with traditional iconography in Spain, he focussed the scene on Jesus, serene and triumphant at the moment
These two paintings (P7804 and P7805) are part of a series on similar subjects, yet they stand out among Giandomenico`s work. These works are small depictions of everyday life in Venice, exquisitely rendered with a very agile touch that reflects the technical skills Giandomenico learnt from his father. This genre work is infrequent in Giandomenico`s oeuvre. In Spain the only known works of this so
The daughter of Henri IV of France and Marie de Médicis, Isabel de Borbón (1603-1644) was the first wife of Philip IV and the mother of Prince Baltasar Carlos and María Teresa of Austria. In Villandrando’s portrait, painted a year before Isabel became Queen of Spain, she wears a stiff, sumptuous dress that emphasises her presence and royal status. Although Spanish in cut, the
Espinosa was the leading painter working in Valencia in the mid-seventeenth century. He deployed a naturalistic style characterised by precise description and a selective use of light. Most of his works depict religious themes, including the present canvas with its unusual subject matter. The compositional rigour and monumental character make this canvas particularly outstanding within Espinosa’s
A member of a leading family of Madrid painters, Juan Rizi entered the Benedictine Order. Most of his worksdepict subjects related to the Order such as its saints and illustrious members. This canvas depicts one of Saint Benedict’s miracles and has a clearly Eucharistic content. It was painted for the Monastery of San Juan Bautista in Burgos.
Baltasar Carlos (1629-1646) was the son of Philip IV and the heir to the throne. He is depicted here shortly before his early death in an image that adheres to the type devised by Velázquez for his early court portraits such as that of the Infante Don Carlos (P1188). As in that work, the sitter here wears a dark suit and holds his glove in a particularly elegant manner.
Margaret, who married Philip III in 1599, was the daughter of the Archduke of Bavaria. In this portrait by Pantoja de la Cruz -the most representative painter of the reign- she wears the so-called “Rich jewel”, a dynastic heirloom comprising the diamond known as “El estanque” (The Pool) and the famous large pearl known as “La peregrina” (The Pilgrim).
On August 29, 1626, King Philip IV’s painter, Vicente Carducho (ca. 1576-1638), signed a contract for the creation of a cycle of paintings to celebrate the founding of the Carthusian Order by Saint Bruno and its leading members. This colossal undertaking sought to visually narrate numerous episodes from the Carthusians’ history and tradition. It was the most complete commission ever dedicated to t
Sequeira (1738-1816) was a celebrated doctor who numbered Gainsborough among his patients. Born into a Jewish family in Lisbon, he moved to Bordeaux, studied in Leyden and eventually settled in London where he practised his profession. Gainsborough follows Van Dyck’s interest in capturing the character of the sitter and conveys Sequeira’s refined character. He presents him in a dignified pose with
The man in the portrait, wearing his palace uniform, holds in his left hand a bundle of “royal orders”. The painting follows the style of portraits of professionals that López worked on in his years at the service of Fernando VII, in which he stressed the sitter’s job through the tools of his trade.
Along with P00632, this is the only surviving testimony to the series of likenesses of kings that adorned the monarch’s bedroom or Room of Furies at the Alcázar in Madrid, and was later at the Hall of Comedies or Golden Hall. The painters commissioned for this series were: Félix Castello, Jusepe Leonardo, Antonio Arias, Francisco Camilo, Francisco Fernández, Pedro Nú&nt
In this work Cajés combines Caravaggesque tenebrism with Correggio’s soft, fleshy Mannerism. The resulting painting, with its gentle, delicate appearance, reveals the artist’s clear assimilation of ideas from Italian art. Cajés studied in Rome between 1595 and 1599 where he was for a while associated with the Cavaliere d’Arpino and from where he returned determined to develop his own
The mural paintings from the Hermitage of the Vera Cruz de Maderuelo were transferred to canvas in 1947 and reconstructed at the Prado Museum in a layout as faithful to the original as possible. The walls of the chapel are decorated with figures of angels, Apostles and evangelical scenes, and the front bears two biblical themes. Dome, center: God the Father held by four angels (P07269, P07270). Le
The artist of this panel is traditionally referred to as the Master of the Luna Family, whom Post first identified in 1933 as one of the two painters who produced the altarpiece for the chapel of Saint James the Apostle in Toledo Cathedral, founded by Don Álvaro de Luna. It was the latter`s daughter, María de Luna, Duchess of El Infantado, who contracted the altarpiece on 21 December
A group of people surround a standing man who gesticulates, appearing to tell a story. Alenza painted numerous small-format scenes of customs depicting the least-advantaged social classes. As in this work, they reveal the influence of Goya, and of works in the Prado by David Teniers (1610 - 1690).
The event depicted is Cadiz’s defense from the attack of an English fleet of one hundred ships and ten thousand men commanded by sir Henry Cecil, Viscount of Wimbledon, which occurred on November 1, 1625. That defense was led by don Fernando Girón y Ponce de León, a veteran of the Flanders campaigns and a military advisor who had been appointed governor by the king after he offered h