22 August 2013

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

AROUND THE EXHIBITION: "STARS AND LILIES OF THE BAROQUE OF ESTELLA".

Royal portraits in Navarre during the Age of Enlightenment

D. Ricardo Fernández Gracia.
Chairof Navarrese Heritage and Art

Images of kings during that century were much more frequent than we might imagine. One need only think of the proclamations that took place in many towns and cities, where the royal portrait was always present under the obligatory canopy. In addition, many nobles had representations of the reigning monarchs in their homes, a fortiori if they had achieved some subjectof honour or reward from the Bourbons. In this respect, it is worth remembering some of the military and administrative careers of numerous families in what Julio Caro Baroja called "La hora Navarra del XVIII" (18th century Navarre). The inventories of numerous entailed estates and noble houses, notarised before notaries in several towns, speak for themselves of this reality.

In addition to the paintings preserved in official institutions, mention should be made of the repertoire of engravings with the portraits of the kings of Navarre that were printed to appear in the destroyed edition of the Annals of Navarre, which we know of thanks to a single copy of the engraved series. publisherThe initiative for the edition with illustrations of the royal portraits came from a learned man of 18th century Pamplona: the printer Miguel Antonio Domech, in 1756-1757, imitating the great books of Iconography, which since the Renaissance had included luxurious books of portraits of reigning houses and men famous for their virtue and wisdom.

Portrait of Charles III of Navarre
José Lamarca
Destroyed edition of the Annals of the Kingdom of Navarre. 1757
 

The gallery of the Diputación del Reino
The desire to have paintings worthy of the reigning monarchs dates back to 1749, when the Diputación del Reino decided that half-length portraits of the kings should be made for the conference roomPreciosa. The following year, the painter Pedro de Rada was commissioned to paint the portraits of Ferdinand VI of Castile and II of Navarre and his wife Bárbara de Braganza.

Shortly afterwards, in 1760, under the reign of Charles III, the same corporation decided to commission a more important work from the Court of Madrid. In this case, the portraits of Philip V, Louis I and Charles III, with their respective wives, were required. The wishes of the Navarrese authorities were that they should be executed by the "most skilful painter at Court". In the short time that elapsed between the first commission and the second, barely ten years, important changes were taking place in the city of Pamplona and also at the Madrid court, where the best art was consumed. The agent in Madrid reported that he had found "a subject of complete satisfaction and, having seen the measurements and expression of the portrait referred to by one of the most famous painters known as El Romano, after lengthy conferences and discussions, he does not want less than one hundred and fifty doubloons for the said six portraits, replying that his hand does not produce any mamarrachos. For this reason, I have not decided to have them executed until Your Honour, having presented them to the Most Illustrious Deputation, has decided what I should do in this case".

Identifying the famous painter, who lived in Madrid, is somewhat complicated. In principle, we might think of Antonio González Velázquez, who was in the Eternal City from 1747, thanks to the first pension granted to him by the Royal Academy of San Fernando, until 1752 when he was summoned by José de Carvajal y Lancaster to work in the Royal Palace in Madrid. However, it is perhaps more likely that the portraits were executed by an Italian master, training, who at that time was very popular at the Madrid court. He was born in Cesena but was educated in Rome, where he completed his studies with Andrea Procaccini at training, where he excelled as a skilled draughtsman and painted several portraits for the illustrations in Nicola Pio's Vite de pittori scultori e architetti. In Spain he was appointed painter to the king and drawing teacher to the prince, the future Ferdinand VI, gaining the confidence of Isabella of Farnese, who protected him and made him painter to the Chamber. His surviving portraits reveal the influence of Procaccini and Ranc.
 

Portrait of Philip VII of Navarre and V of Castile
Possible work by Domenico Maria Sani
Portrait Gallery of the Diputación del Reino

Portrait of Isabella de Farnese
Possible work by Domenico Maria Sani
Portrait Gallery of the Diputación del Reino
 

Municipalities and other institutions
A distinction must be made between two large groups. Those painted by a couple of painters active in 18th-century Navarre, Pedro Antonio de Rada and Diego Díaz del Valle, and those imported from the Court, which were of much higher quality. Among the former, three portraits by Pedro Antonio de Rada, who settled in Pamplona, stand out in Estella Town Hall. The portrait of Bárbara de Braganza, in 1746, follows modelby Jean Ranc of 1729 from the Prado Museum, that of Charles III in 1759, with modelby Giovanni Maria delle Piane, il Molinaretto, and that of Mª Amelia of Saxony, also from 1759, following the painter Giusepe Bonito.

To Diego Díaz del Valle we owe some portrait galleries of medium quality, such as the portrait of the kings of Navarre executed for the Pamplona town hall (1797), isolated royal portraits for the regiment of Tudela, such as the portrait of Charles III signed in 1797, and seven canvases in the new sacristy of Tudela cathedral (1783), in which various benefactors, kings, religious and intellectuals were depicted, whose actions contributed to a centuries-old dream of the city: The elevation of the collegiate church to cathedral status with the creation of the bishopric of Tudela. There we find Campomanes, the best painting in the gallery, signed by Alejandro Carnicero, five kings, two from Navarre and three from Spain: Alfonso the Battler, liberator of the city from the Muslim yoke, Sancho the Strong, considered to be the patron of the material construction of the church and Philip II, Philip V and Charles III, for their efforts to obtain the cathedral dignity for the church.

Portrait of Charles IV
Diego Díaz del Valle. 1797
Pamplona Town Hall

Portrait of Charles VI of Navarre
Anonymous
Pamplona City Hall
 

Among the imported works, also of note is the set of the Town Hall of Estella, including those of Philip V and Isabella of Farnese - the latter attributed to Miguel Jacinto Meléndez -, Charles IV, a work by Antonio Martínez de Espinosa (1789) which follows models by Francisco Folh de Cardona, painter of the Chamber of Charles IV and Ginés Andrés de Aguirre, de Pintura de San Fernando and even of the first Goya, and that of Mª Luisa de Parma by Martínez de Espinosa himself, painter to Charles IV and Ginés Andrés de Aguirre, director de Pintura de San Fernando and even of the first Goya, and that of Mª Luisa de Parma by Martínez de Espinosa himself, quite close to the portrait of the queen executed by the aforementioned Francisco Folch de Cardona.