This is the first rough sketch prior to the definitive preparatory piece (now at the Diputación de Palencia) of the picture held by the Museo del Prado (P5728). It shows the king Ferdinand IV of Castile on his deathbed, where he is confronted by the apparition of the brothers Juan and Pedro de Carvajal, unjustly executed by order of the monarch one month earlier, and said to have summoned h
Europe turns a last glance at her companions, who are located outside the composition, as Jupiter carries her away. The god was profoundly enamored of her and transformed into a bull in order to approach her. This story from Ovid´s Metamorphoses is depicted by Rubens in a very succinct manner in this preparatory sketch for a painting Erasmus Quellinus made for the Torre de la Parada.
Sketch for one of the eight segments of the dome of the collegiate church at La Granja, Segovia. These Old and New Testament scenes (destroyed in 1918) glorified the Holy Trinity. God reprimands Adam and Eve for disobeying him, while an angel announces to Abraham that his barren wife will bear a child.In this sketchs the noble simplicity of the poses and emotions evidences the influence of Anton R
Humanity´s rebirth after the flood is represented in Greek mythology through the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha. After surviving the disaster, they threw stones over their shoulders, each of which became a new being. This story is told by the classical poet, Ovid, in his Metamorphoses. This painting is a sketch by Rubens for a painting —now lost— by Jan Cossiers for the Torre de la Parada. Rubens w
In 1625, Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia commissioned Rubens to design a series of twenty tapestries for the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid. The subject was the Eucharist, a leading Catholic dogma that the infanta defended in her role as sovereign princess of the southern Netherlands. Rubens conceived the scenes like victory marches, as if the cloths were hanging from baroque archite
This is a sketch for a no-longer extant painting on canvas intended to decorate a ceiling in a building of the imperial court of Russia, whose memory is preserved in an engraving made by Giambattista´s youngest son Lorenzo. The engraving forms a set with another three, two of which were also made by Lorenzo, on the basis of original works by his father, as part of the same commission. The en
A circle of ten Majos and Majas play blind man´s buff on the banks of what may be the Manzanares River. This work is the only sketch for the cartoon Goya painted for a series of playful and gay tapestries intended for the bedroom of the Infantas —the daughters of the future Carlos IV (1748-1819) and María Luisa de Parma (1751-1818)— at Madrid´s El Pardo Palace. Originally titled
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.
This is a preparatory sketch for a mural of Saint Teresa on clouds, accompanied by other Carmelite nuns. The saint is received by the Virgin, who points to the Holy Trinity. The composition reflects the influence of the Baroque style of Luca Giordano (1634-1705), modified by the aesthetic of Corrado Giaquinto (1703-1766).
Considered to be, with good reason, the most beautiful nude in nineteenth-century Spanish painting, this work provides eloquent testimony of the modernity that made Rosales stand out in the Spanish artistic panorama of his time. He would have earned himself a prominent place among the era´s artistic vanguard in Europe if his brilliant career had not been cut short by his premature death. Neither a
Saint Joseph’s Dream represent the order received by St Joseph to save the Christ child from the slaughter of the Innocent, and the release of the Liberation of Saint Peter (P3141), was imprisoned by Herod. The academic nudes reveals the training of the young painter, whose loose, impasted technique recalls that of his master Maella, though he employs a cooler palette. The forced perspective indic
This preparatory sketch for the large-scale canvas painted by Madrazo in Rome (also on display in this room) reveals various differences with respect to the final composition. Madrazo gave more space to the tent in the upper part of the sketch, which he subsequently reduced. There are also differences in the figures and in the landscape with the camp on the far right, which he enlarged.
A woman paints energetically à plein air in a fashionable resort on the Normandy coast. Although it cannot be ruled out that this is a portrait of a real woman artist, the ambiguous characterisation would distance it from the conventions used to depict male painters by both Palmaroli and the artists of his closest circle.
The Count of Orgaz died in 1323. According to legend, Saint Augustine and Saint Stephen appeared during his burial in the church of Santo Tomé in Toledo where, supporting the Count by the head and feet respectively, the saints deposited his body in his tomb. Quite different to El Greco´s famous interpretation, the horizontal format allowed Meléndez to present an impressive, theatrica
A preparatory sketch for the painting of the same name, which has disappeared from the Museo del Prado’s collections. It commemorated the ransom of a large number of captives in Algiers in 1768 by order of Charles III. The memory of this king was exalted during the reign of his grandson, Ferdinand VII, as a model for the prestige of the monarchy
Preparatory sketch for a work possibly intended for the private chapel of the Infante Don Antonio Pascual in the Royal Palace of Aranjuez. The composition is very similar to the Last Supper in the Royal Palace of Madrid painted by Maella in 1794.
Paired with P07726, P07727 y P07729. These are sketches for cartoons for tapestries intended to adorn the King’s Antechamber known as the “Pieza de Conversación” in the Royal Palace of Madrid. Based on the allegories painted by Corrado Giaquinto for the equivalent room in the Palace at Aranjuez, they are notable for the apocalyptic symbols, such as the dove of the Holy Sprit conveying God´s
Christ shown to the People is an unfinished painting that allows for the direct study of the pictorial process, specifically the underlying drawing. It is a work in progress for which the first stages of execution (preparation of the support and preliminary drawing) have been completed. The painting stage has begun and reaches different degrees of completion depending on the figure in question. Th