T O WA R D S G O YA ’ S R O YA L C O U P L E S THE EVOLUTION OF THE OFFICIAL ICONOGRAPHY OF CHARLES IV José Manuel de la Mano * AND MARIA LUISA OF PARMA THROUGH THEIR COURT PAINTERS In Spanish society during the Enlightenment, the monarchy’s public image extended to a multitude of facets of courtly life. In palace circles, it took the form of programmatic allegories in the different residences that were intended to glorify the virtues of their royal inhabitants. In the more public sphere it was achieved through a succession of prototypes of portraiture that were updated as the dynastic program evolved. The iconography exemplified in Spain’s Century of Lights by Charles of Bourbon and Maria Luisa of Parma is one of the most fascinating, due to the longevity of their public life and the quality of the painters who depicted them. Through these portraits we can certainly investigate not only the evolution of Spanish painting at that time, but also the modernization of the political message the monarchs sought to project to their subjects. The profuse official documentation surrounding many of those canvases as well as their effect at court and on the ministers concerned with such matters, show how these commissions were often treated as matters of state. Our current image of Charles and Maria Luisa is almost exclusively derived from the one projected by Francisco de Goya in 1789 and 1799–1800. For their contemporaries, however, Goya’s images competed with those of many other colleagues working for the Royal Chamber. In the severe etiquette of the Ancien Régime, likenesses of the royal family served as substitutes for their physical presence at innumerable acts and ceremonies. In fact, in the case of Charles and Maria Luisa, this practice began almost before they were married, as the arrangement of such a politically significant marriage included the exchange of portraits to palliate what was then an insurmountable geographic distance between the two. At an undetermined date in 1764, the Spanish court sent a box to Parma. It was decorated with porcelain plaques, possibly from the Buen Retiro Porcelain Factory, and had a portrait of Charles inside.1 A similar gesture was made 3 by the court of Parma. The marriage agreement was ratified in early November 17642 and that was the beginning of frenetic diplomatic activity. There was abundant correspondence between the future bride and groom over the months before the future Princess of Asturias left for Spain, and their respective parents commissioned portraits of them by the finest painters available at each court. The function of the initial canvases exchanged by the two branches of the Bourbon family is still not entirely clear, though they may have been used to mitigate the absence of the youths at some of the wedding procedures carried out by power of attorney that preceded the official ceremony at La Granja de San Ildefonso in 1765. This practically ambassadorial exchange of images allowed Maria Luisa to discover her fiancé through a masterful portrait by Mengs (Parma, Galleria Nazionale, inv. 2077). At the same time, while awaiting Maria Luisa’s arrival, Charles was able to contemplate her visage in a monumental canvas by Laurent Pécheux (1729–1821) now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (fig. 20). Ever since Charles III and his family’s arrival in Spain from Naples, Prince Charles had been portrayed in pastels—at times by Lorenzo Tiepolo (1736–1776), and others by Joaquín Inza (1736– 1811).3 This choice of second-rate painters was due to the fact that Spain’s finest artists were busy at that time with the frescoes for the main quarters at the New Royal Palace in Madrid. Nevertheless, the diplomatic importance of the pre-matrimonial exchange of portraits was such that the King assigned his first court painter, Anton Raphael Mengs, to the job. Along with this royal commission, Mengs was simultaneously being consulted about the iconographic model to be adopted for Prince Charles, which would be the source of the commemorative medal coined for the wedding.4 Meanwhile, once the marriage contract was ratified in Parma, Philip of Bourbon sought the ideal painter for his daughter’s portrait. In late 1764 he commissioned Laurent Pécheux, who traveled to Parma from Rome to paint the work. Pécheux would later write: In January 1765, I was called to Parma by Duke Philippe to make a portrait of his daughter, Princess Louise, who was engaged to the Prince of Asturias, now King of Spain. This very large and rich canvas was sent to Madrid around May and was applauded by the King.5 A native of Lyon, Pécheux had studied under Mengs in Rome, and it has sometimes been stated that he was called to Parma on the recommendation of his teacher.6 In fact, it was due to the Duke’s admiration for his sketch of a double portrait of the Maltese ambassador and the Jesuit, Fig. 20 François Jacquier. Laurent Pécheux, Maria Luisa of Parma, 1765, oil on canvas, 230 x 164 cm. New York, The painter is coming from Rome: he will be here shortly. This man has never wanted to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, leave as far as I . . . his sketch of two very well-known men painted on the same canvas: Bequest of Annie C. Kane, 1926 [26.260.9] The Ambassador of Malta and the renowned P. Jacquier. To tell you the truth, I was struck, not only by the resemblance, but also by the proper appearance and the compo- And just as Guillaume du Tillot warns his representative before the Spanish Crown, there was no sition. The moment he arrives, I will put him to work, and I will say no more about it more news about this royal commission until it was completed. On March 17 of that year, Juan until I have sent Your Excellency the finished portrait, even though I am scolded about it Domingo Pignatelli wrote the Marquis of Grimaldi from Parma: “the portrait of Princess [Maria] by the King, the Prince and yourself, I will bow my head and take the blows, but I will Luisa is totally finalized and such a good likeness that only her voice is missing. The Princess’s keep my mouth shut and send a good and Beautiful Portrait. precious health is unchanged.”8 Pignatelli wrote to Madrid again on March 31, observing in a 7 4 J o s é Manuel d e la M an o Towards Goya’s Royal Couples 5 postscript: “this courier bears the portrait of Princess Luisa, which is a very good likeness and well para un retiro espiritual (Christian Meditations for a Spiritual Retreat), and another listed in the painted.”9 When this letter was published, it was thought to be a reference to the portrait attrib- inventory of Mengs’s studio following his death: “The Princess of Asturias is shown full length uted to Giuseppe Baldrighi, now at the palace in El Pardo [cat. 9]. It is more likely, however, that before she moved to Spain in the manner of Percheux [sic].”15 But of all these early copies, the this letter refers to Pécheux’s portrait, and the proof lies in an official notification of April 14, most interesting for our study may be the one found hanging in the staircase of Toledo’s City Hall, 1765, in which Minister Du Tillot informs Grimaldi: which supports the idea that, besides the one now at the Metropolitan Museum, another portrait 10 by Pécheux was also sent to Spain. This canvas, which has yet to be located, must have been a I spoke no more of the Portrait; I suffered too much from the justifiable impatience [for half-length portrait of Maria Luisa with a fan in her left hand, and in the right, a sumptuous dia- it], and from the slowness that cannot be avoided in this sort of task. Your Excellency will mond-studded miniature of her father. have received it by now, and my wish is that if the Painter, who is a man of unquestion- Mengs spent the court’s sojourn in Aranjuez in 1766 painting the Prince and Princess of As- able talent, has been able to paint the soul, the enchanting capacity to please and the turias from life.16 In mid-August, he personally carried both portraits to El Escorial to show them happy charm that come with grace and goodness, then You will have a true and perfect to Charles III. Having received the King’s approval, this inaugural prototype eclipsed any other Portrait.11 iconographic candidate for over a decade. Now at the Museo del Prado (P–2188 and P–2189), these portraits have been the subject of profuse analysis in a multitude of monographs and cata- This portrait arrived in Spain at a time when the court was sojourning in Madrid. Despite its careful log entries. Nevertheless, until now, it has always been thought that these were the only paintings packaging, it was damaged during the trip. At the artist’s suggestion, it was restored by Mengs.12 of the royal couple made by Mengs at that time; a pair of pendant paintings with Charles dressed The two portraits of the fiancés form a virtual couple, yet they have never been exhibited together, although they undoubtedly constitute the first political message projected by both royal out that the brilliant first court painter might well have painted a more official prototype as well. families through the iconography of their heirs, Charles and Maria Luisa. As a result of the geo- This supposition stems from the recent discovery at the Hermitage Museum of a pair of full-length graphical distance, the predominant interest of those responsible for commissioning these works portraits based on partially unknown Mengsian models, especially in the case of Prince Charles was scrupulous veracity in the representation of the sitters. As mentioned above, the decision to (figs. 21 and 22).17 The diplomatic initiative of sending these works to Russia is documented in a bring Laurent Pécheux from Rome reflects the importance that the ministers in Parma assigned to letter of February 6, 1773, in which the Marquis of Grimaldi informs Montealegre that “The Em- his tremendous capacity to paint from life. In this painterly play of real and simulated, we cannot press of Russia has requested portraits of the King and of the Prince and Princess. Francisco forget how Philip of Bourbon actually measured the portrait to be sure it was the same height as Bayeu and Mariano Maella have been ordered to make them, and it has been decided that they his daughter. At the same time, Mengs, the painter-philosopher, goes beyond a mere reproduc- should copy those made by Rafael Mengs. His Majesty has resolved that Bayeu and Maella be tion of Prince Charles’s features to present him to his future in-laws as a modern enlightened given permission to take them to their houses in order to more comfortably copy them.”18 13 prince, depicting a set of geometrical exercises on the table beside him with clear programmatic While this job was initially assigned to Francisco Bayeu and Mariano Maella, later docu- intent. Style was also a determining factor in both canvases, and Minister Du Tillot informed ments indicate that in the end, the entire commission was carried out by Maella. As Ceán Grimaldi that the only clothing in Maria Luisa’s trousseau were dresses of the sort in fashion in Bermúdez reported: “at that time [1780] he also painted five other portraits of the same size for Versailles, as that was the custom in Parma and also because, while the differences might be mini- the court of Russia, which represented the mentioned King Charles III, his son, Charles IV and his mal, her couturier did not know “the way of making and adorning them [the clothing] customary august wife, when they were still Prince and Princess of Asturias, along with the King and Queen at the Spanish court.” Charles appears in his own portrait dressed in the reigning Spanish style. of Naples.” While only images of the Spanish monarchs seem to have been requested from Russia, Moreover, the subtle allusions to their respective fiancés in both compositions constitute a pro- for reasons yet unknown, that request was later expanded to include the Neapolitan monarchs. grammatic play of emotions far removed from the future prototypes of their official portraits. This delayed cabinet was requested by Catherine II for an impressive gallery of portraits of the 14 Following the Prince and Princess of Asturias’s wedding at La Granja, celebrations were European monarchs at Chesmensky Palace, which was then under construction on the outskirts held at most of the city halls throughout the kingdom, which called for portraits of the newly of Saint Petersburg. A Russian description from 1782 indicates that “The first hall had the portraits married couple. In those months, Charles’s iconography offered a broad spectrum of potential of Catherine II and her family. Further on, there was a detailed list of other halls with portraits of images from which to choose, while quite the opposite was true for his new wife. The total lack the royal families of England, Denmark, Sweden, France, Prussia, Portugal, Spain, Sardinia, Sicily, of portraits of the new Princess of Asturias led to the adoption of Laurent Pécheux’s depiction for the Roman Emperor, Joseph II, the Stadtholder of the Low Countries and Prince of Orange, and her iconography between late 1765 and spring 1766, when Mengs’s portrait defined the new one. even a portrait of the Roman Pope, Clement XIV.”19 This is demonstrated by various Spanish copies of Pécheux’s work, including one drawn by Mari6 in hunting garb and Maria Luisa in the gardens at Aranjuez. Now, however, I would like to point ano Maella as a visual prologue to Infanta Isabel of Bourbon’s book, Meditaciones Christianas J o s é Manuel d e la M an o In those circumstances, Charles III must have been aware of the unquestionable importance of having monumental paintings of the Spanish Bourbons on show there. We can imagine Towards Goya’s Royal Couples 7 that each addition to the Tsarina’s portrait gallery must have constituted a true act of dynastic exaltation, and the Count of Lacy, Spain’s ambassador to that remote court, reported to that effect in a letter to the Marquis of Grimaldi dated October 11, 1774: “the Chamberlain Baron Erensward, envoy to this Court to announce on behalf of his Lord, the King of Sweden, the marriage of the Duke of Suderman, has presented these days the portrait of H. M. of Sweden, sent by this Monarch to the Tsarina. Its expression and fineness has been appreciatively recognized by Her Imperial Majesty, who is assembling a complete collection of portraits of all the Sovereigns currently Reigning in Europe.”20 No chronicle of the arrival of Maella’s emblematic portraits in Saint Petersburg has yet been found, but we can imagine that the ceremony surrounding their presentation to Catherine II would have been used by Spanish dignitaries to strengthen diplomatic relations between the two monarchies. Of this previously unknown iconography by Mengs of the Prince and Princess of Asturias, the greatest difference appears in the image of the future Charles IV, as the portrait of Maria Luisa Fig. 21 Mariano Salvador Maella, Charles of Bourbon, Prince of Asturias, 1773–80, oil on canvas, 236 x 170 cm. Saint Petersburg, Hermitage Museum [GE–4433] Fig. 22 of Parma reproduces the painter’s known portrait, except that it is full-length and the setting is a Mariano Salvador Maella, palace, rather than the balustrade of a garden. The discovery of this painting made for one of Maria Luisa of Parma, Princess Catherine the Great’s palaces also strengthens the attribution to Maella of a drawing in the Carderera collection that has often been attributed to Mengs.21 All the same, in his prototype of the of Asturias, 1773–80, oil on canvas, 237 x 168 cm. Saint Petersburg, Hermitage Museum [GE–4591] Prince, Maella draws on a model by Mengs that is totally unknown in his historiography. The face is undoubtedly the same as in Mengs’s depiction of Charles as a hunter, but rather than posing plary domestic princess in which the jewel subtly evokes love and virtue. Present-day observers with the corresponding garb, he appears here in sumptuous court clothing and wears all the contemplating any likeness of Maria Luisa may be unable to free themselves of prejudices chains of office of his orders. This allows us to hypothesize that Mengs may have developed two formed by centuries of programmatic vilification, but let us not forget that when this work was prototypes, so that one or the other could be reproduced according to the greater or lesser painted, her contemporaries considered her a devoted mother, a virtuous wife, and a model for solemnity of its intended destination. This iconographic coexistence would confirm Andrés de la all to follow.23 Calleja’s observation while establishing the vast catalog of Mengs’s works that he “duplicated some [portraits] of the Most Serene Prince and Princess.”22 Mengs’s official prototype for portraits of Charles and Maria Luisa was in force from 1766 8 The death of Charles III in December 1788 and the subsequent proclamation of Charles IV marked a fundamental change of direction in the fascinating evolution of Charles and Maria Luisa’s iconography. The new monarchs’ coronation coincided with the bloody French Revolution, which to almost 1782, when Charles III commissioned Mariano Maella to sketch some new and modern was a death knell for Ancien Régime society. The political convenience of projecting an image of images of the Prince and Princess of Asturias. In several letters, Maella proudly boasted of the strength to their subjects, without ever forgetting that their French counterparts were imprisoned at royal favor that allowed him to paint the couple “from life.” That updated depiction has been the people’s behest, was an underlying factor in any commission of their court painters to create identified as the basis for a multitude of versions in institutions and private collections, but with- portraits for public use. Until then, the formal representation of Charles and Maria Luisa had gone out doubt, the finest ones are those of the couple now at the Monastery of the Incarnation in unchanged for over two decades, but in 1789 its iconography progressed with uncommon speed Madrid (Patrimonio Nacional, Real Monasterio de la Encarnación, inv. nos. 00621508 and in response to the profound transformations taking place in Spanish society. The appearance at 00621509), although there the painter depicts them as monarchs. Comparing Maella’s 1782 proto- that point of Francisco de Goya logically had a fundamental effect on the shaping of a decorous type with the immediate predecessor painted by his teacher Mengs in 1766, we see not only the image of the monarchs, although we should never lose sight of the fact that from then until the implacable effects of time on the models’ faces but, more importantly, a fundamental shift in the end of the century, his successive likenesses coexisted with many other royal images. The clearest political message the monarchy seeks to project through the Prince and Princess of Asturias. The proof may well lie in the coronation ceremony of September 1789, when Goya’s canvases openly adolescent Charles, whose main interest seemed to lie in hunting, has become the unquestion- competed with others in the streets of Madrid. From our present-day perspective, Goya’s canvases able heir to the throne, worthy of assuming his obligations upon his father’s demise. Alongside would have stood out for their modernity, compared to others that must have been much more this projection of Charles’s royal mastery, Maella’s Maria Luisa appears with her hands in the old-fashioned. But today’s artistic evaluation would not have been shared by the people of Madrid same position as in Mengs’s portrait. But her necklace bears a cut ruby pendant shaped mean- at that time. From here on, we will attempt to analyze the clear changes in the monarchs’ political ingfully like a heart. So Mengs’s feminine icon of tender youth has evolved into that of an exem- message through Goya’s successive portraits of them, without losing track of the compositional J o s é Manuel d e la M an o Towards Goya’s Royal Couples 9 alternatives proposed by Francisco Bayeu, Mariano Maella, Zacarías González Velázquez (1763– Esteve (1753–ca. 1820) worked side by side in a frenetic campaign to reproduce this successful 1834), Antonio Carnicero (1748–1814), and Francisco Folch de Cardona (1744–1808). While art his- iconographic model. In that context, it seems paradoxical that, while the monarchs kept none of tory has relegated these contemporaneous royal likenesses due to their lesser pictorial quality, we Goya’s original portraits for the Royal Collection and hung none of them in the New Royal Palace should not overlook the fact that in their struggle for the attention of their royal patrons they often in Madrid, they did call for replicas for an as yet undetermined courtly use. Around those months of 1789, as has already been explained, Francisco de Goya made sev- had as much importance at court as Goya’s creations. Since the beginning of 1789, the requirement to fly the royal flag at all city halls in the eral variations on this original prototype. The original composition almost certainly corresponded to presence of portraits of the monarchs unleashed a frenetic campaign to obtain royal images. In the one transcribed in the three-quarter-length portraits reproduced for Seville. He would later Madrid, many of the portraits on sale were so poor that the City Government itself ordered their return to those same images in a slightly larger format for the canopy of the Real Academia de la confiscation, calling on the Real Academia de San Fernando to try to put a stop to the lamentable Historia. Finally, the least similar version was conceived for the Count of Campomanes’s palace in spectacle. In that context, Goya’s early involvement in the much-needed development of an ap- Madrid.27 While autograph versions of the first two models are known today, the last one mentioned propriate image of the monarchs stems not only from his greater or lesser proximity to the new is known only through a replica painted some time later by José Camarón y Meliá (1760–1819)28 for sovereigns, but also to the fact that he was available at that time. In fact, several of his potential the halls of the Royal Court of Cáceres.29 There, curiously, the King’s pose corresponds with the competitors, including Mariano Maella and Francisco Bayeu, were involved in a multitude of 1782 precedent by Mariano Maella. A comparison of all these versions with Goya’s initial prototype palace commissions at that time, and were thus unable to take on the pressing task of developing from 1789 allows us to reconstruct some of the monarchs’ stipulations for their portraits, as well as royal propaganda. Just months after Charles IV came to the throne, Goya presented his royal pa- Goya’s genius at responding to the challenge of pictorially interpreting the propaganda interests of trons with his first portrait of them. Apparently, those paintings were well received from the very the Spanish monarch in a manner coherent with the Enlightenment. start. There is some documentation to that effect, including a letter from miniaturist Eugenio Though we do not yet have documentation to prove it, we can presume that, like Mengs in 1766 and Maella in 1782, Goya must have gone to paint the recently proclaimed monarchs from Ximénez de Cisneros to the Marquis of Valdecarzana on May 8, 1789: life between February and March 1789. That would explain how “A crate, which was made to Having come from that Royal Site where he was sworn in as Court Painter before Your bring and take the portraits from the Palace,”30 might have been used to transport the paintings Excellency, Don Francisco Goya has informed me that Our Lady, the Queen, wants the for successive sittings at the King’s and Queen’s quarters at the New Royal Palace. The maturity of Portraits he has painted in oils of their Majesties to be copied as Miniatures by me, for the sitters had to be brought out in this updated prototype, given their dignity as monarchs, and it their Majesties, which I am ready to obey with as much exactitude as possible, as is my is clear that none of the other court painters were deemed worthy of such an honor at that time. obligation: but I will delay beginning until Your Excellency has been so informed, so For example, in most of Antonio Carnicero’s royal portraits from 1789 the monarchs appear with that, as my Supervisor, you might send me the order, which I await in order to begin faces drawn from their earlier depictions as Prince and Princess of Asturias. But where Goya most those Portraits. clearly departs from traditional royal iconography is in the formal language used to represent 24 royal authority. While this documentation has been known for some time, no one had yet noticed the importance of this early commissioning of miniature replicas of Goya’s images of Charles IV and Maria Luisa Madrid’s City Hall, or Zacarías González Velázquez’s efforts to immortalize the monarchs on a of Parma. This letter from Ximénez de Cisneros, like one of Goya’s letters to Martín Zapater, re- proscenium at the palace in a portrait commissioned by the Five Leading Guilds, were undoubtedly calls how, during his fleeting stay in Aranjuez in late April 1789, Goya was not only sworn in as rejected by Goya. All of those contemporary paintings sought to emphasize royal majesty through court painter, but also obtained a private audience with the monarchs. At that palace interview, the presence of the traditional gilded throne, the solemn placement of the crown, and the formulaic the Queen herself told Goya she wanted a much smaller copy of those modern portraits. And inclusion of his scepter. Goya, on the other hand, does away with almost all the elements used to indeed, no sooner did Goya return to court in early May, than he contacted his colleague, glorify the institution since the time of the Hapsburgs. The crown appears in his work half hidden Ximénez de Cisneros, to inform him of the royal wish. The destination of that pair of reproduc- by a curtain, and while his right hand seems to be in the proper position for holding a scepter, the tions has not yet been precisely documented. Given their size, they may have been commissioned object itself is nowhere to be seen.31 Goya’s significant decision in this first portrait to veil the pres- for the Prince’s Country House at El Escorial, or perhaps for one of the jewels often given to cer- ence of all symbols of royal power must be weighed in all its complexity and modernity. 25 tain ambassadors.26 Meanwhile, on May 11, just three days after Ximénez de Cisneros’s letter, 10 Carnicero’s old-fashioned image of Charles IV dressed in Mengsian armor on his way to Some of those iconographic elements were concurrently reconsidered by Goya—perhaps Goya wrote his bill for the famous canvases for the Royal Tobacco Factory in Seville. This un- in terms of each canvas’s intended destination—in both the pair of works at the Real Academia de questionable overlapping of replicas of such different sizes suggests that Ximénez may have had la Historia [cat. 10, 11] and the full-length likeness at the Museo del Prado. Still, we must again to make his copies of Goya’s works in the latter’s studio, while other disciples such as Agustín emphasize that unlike what has so often been said, Goya’s prototype was not formally in force J o s é Manuel d e la M an o Towards Goya’s Royal Couples 11 Fig. 23 Fig. 24 Francisco de Goya, Equestrian Francisco de Goya, Equestrian Portrait of Charles IV, 1799–1800, Portrait of Maria Luisa of Parma, oil on canvas, 336 x 282 cm. 1799, oil on canvas, 338 x 282 cm. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado [P–719] [P–720] over the following decade. Almost none of the versions of the model he developed in 1789 show Moreover, from then on, there is evidence that other court painters began to craft their own Charles IV with the up-to-date sash of the Order of Charles III, nor Maria Luisa with the Royal personal iconographic proposals to the monarchs, including Francisco Bayeu, Mariano Maella, Order she founded around 1792 in her honor. Agustín Esteve’s help in crafting copies of Goya’s Antonio Carnicero,33 and Francisco Folch de Cardona. Even the possible permission Goya had model is confirmed by a forgotten testimony by Ceán Bermúdez, recovered here: received to paint the sovereigns from life would be shared in future sojourns by other colleagues, such as Bayeu and Folch de Cardona. It is increasingly clear that in the genre of por- [Esteve] helped Francisco Goya to fulfill various commissions for portraits of the King and traiture, the monarchs were not going to favor specific painters on the basis of their greater or Queen on the occasion of their enthronement, which was certainly helpful to our Esteve, lesser mastery. The most conclusive proof is the appointment on May 31, 1790, of Francisco because he not only observed the precision and ease with which Goya made them, but Folch de Cardona as court portrait painter with the same salary as Goya. In the final decade of also supplied many himself that Goya could not make as a result of his serious illness. that century, this Valencian painter played a very active role in the pictorial representation of 32 12 J o s é Manuel d e la M an o Towards Goya’s Royal Couples 13 the monarchy, even though what is known of his work is rather disappointing from an artistic standpoint. According to Ceán Bermúdez, he was introduced to the monarchs by the Count of Floridablanca: Among the different portraits he made in Murcia was one of the father of the Most Excellent Lord Count of Floridablanca, who paved his way to greater fortune because having been referred by His Excellency when he was Secretary of State, he was called to portray our sovereigns.34 In this field of portraiture, another interesting fact at the beginning of Charles IV’s reign is the presence in Madrid of the Swedish painter Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller (1751–1811), who fled the French Revolution and took up residence in Madrid between June 1790 and late July 1791.35 In Paris, he had held a post as one of the official portrait painters at the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and in his precipitous flight he carried various likenesses of the French royal family36 in his luggage, selling them a little at a time to the jeweler Léonard Chopinot, and to the Duke and Duchess of Infantado.37 During his brief stay in Spain those canvases were sometimes used as models for reproductions to satisfy the unexpected Spanish demand for portraits of the by then deposed sovereigns. Wertmüller sought a patron, but despite having portrayed a considerable number of leading figures in diplomatic and noble circles, he never managed to obtain the audience with the monarchs that would have allowed him to display his talents. Finally, given the crown’s frustrating silence, he decided to travel to Cadiz and from there, in a desperate search for new opportunities, he sailed to Philadelphia under the protection of the Swedish consul. The quality of Wertmüller’s art and its lack in the work of Folch de Cardona clearly show that artistic stature does not seem to have played a determinant role in Charles’s and Maria Luisa’s choice of the most appropriate painters for the projection of their official images at that time. History has frequently considered Goya’s genius outside the context of the other court painters, often forgetting that some of his most significant commissions, such as his equestrian portraits (figs. 23 and 24) or The Family of Charles IV (fig. 25), have unquestionable precedents in the work of others, including Francisco Folch de Cardona and Mariano Maella. One of those forgotten precedents is a monumental equestrian portrait of Charles IV that Folch de Cardona painted in 1791. On September 5, 1791, Andrés del Peral presented his bill for having “gilded and burnished a large frame for the painting of the Portrait of the King on horseback which is 43 feet and is very fine and with much work.” Sometime later, Jorge Balze issued his own bill 38 Francisco de Goya, The Family Almost a decade later, in the final weeks of the 18th century, Goya undertook his famous of Charles IV, 1800, oil on canvas, pair of equestrian portraits of Charles IV and Maria Luisa. The recent publication of previously un- 280 x 336 cm. Madrid, Museo known documents indicates that he sketched both images from life during the royal sojourn at El Nacional del Prado [P–726] Escorial in 1799.42 The monarchs’ placement in these paintings also supports the hypothesis that for “a carved frame with a stretcher, delivered for the Portrait of Your Majesty on horseback.”39 they were not intended to be hung side by side, but rather facing each other on the walls of an as In the late 19 century, this painting was still listed in the inventories of the Museo del Prado, yet undetermined room in the New Palace.43 A comparison of these paintings with the scant data although in 1887 its deposit at the Prior’s Temple of the Four Military Orders of Ciudad Real currently available on the work of Folch de Cardona shows that its format is practically the same was decreed.40 The absence of an image of this portrait of Charles IV by Folch de Cardona pre- but its dimensions are slightly larger than the 1791 work. This detail, as well as the circumstance vents its comparison with the well-known portrait by Goya, but the high cost of the carved and that Folch de Cardona was not commissioned to paint the Queen’s portrait at that time, allows us gilded wooden frame suggests it had a rather important place at the New Royal Palace in to affirm that the two commissions were not intended for the same place in the palace. In fact, as Madrid. Manuela Mena has stated with regard to these pieces by Goya, the most interesting iconography th 14 Fig. 25 J o s é 41 Manuel d e la M an o Towards Goya’s Royal Couples 15 16 J o s é Manuel d e la M an o Fig. 26 Fig. 27 Francisco de Goya, Charles IV, Francisco de Goya, Maria Luisa Hunter, 1799, oil on canvas, of Parma with a Mantilla, 1799, 205 x 129 cm. Patrimonio Nacional, oil on canvas, 205 x 130 cm. Madrid, Royal Palace Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, [inv. no. 10002934] Royal Palace [inv. n.º 10002935] 17 Towards Goya’s Royal Couples may well be that of Maria Luisa, who wears a capricious uniform of the Guardia de Corps (the sequent painting in praise of the heir’s bloodline. In this context, we cannot forget how, in royal family’s military bodyguards, generally cavalrymen).44 The programmatic image of the exem- 1798, Luis Paret was commissioned to paint his well-known Ferdinand VII is Sworn in as Prince plary wife and mother projected in 1766 and 1782 by Mengs and later Maella, gives way in this of Asturias. Somewhat later, Francisco Folch de Cardona sketched portraits of all the royal pro- portrait to the Queen’s wish to emphasize an almost military aspect of the Spanish monarchy. It tagonists from life in preparation for the first large portrait of Charles IV’s family. The dimen- has sometimes been said that the court’s need for an equestrian portrait of Charles IV stemmed sions of that canvas are curiously close to those of the portrait of Philip V’s family (Madrid, from David’s painting of such a work for Napoleon, but the memory of Folch de Cardona’s paint- Museo del Prado, P–2283) by Louis-Michel van Loo (1707–1771), although they have never ing shows that images of this sort were already required for the Bourbons’ main residences hung together since Folch de Cardona’s work was painted for the New Palace, while Van Loo’s shortly after Charles’s coronation. In this context, we can assume that the arrival of Goya’s can- work from the reign of Charles IV never left the Buen Retiro. In both 1792 and 1799–1800, the vases at the palace in Madrid must have led to the immediate withdrawal and storage of Folch de sovereigns’ calls for equestrian portraits and a large family painting came in close succession, so Cardona’s by then obsolete precedent. they overlapped for Folch de Cardona and Francisco de Goya. It is rather improbable that both At almost the same time as these equestrian portraits, Goya made two pairs of full-length family portraits were conceived for the same space at the Royal Palace in Madrid, but we can likenesses of the monarchs with different degrees of courtly importance. The first shows certainly speculate about the possibility that the arrival of Goya’s work might again have led to Charles IV as a hunter and Maria Luisa of Parma with a mantilla. These must have been conceived the withdrawal of Folch de Cardona’s. to replace the ones Mengs had made over three decades earlier (figs. 26 and 27). As had hap- In this fleeting chronicle of the different models that constituted the official iconography pened in Mengs’s time, the monarchs also needed portraits of a more formal nature, and in those of Charles IV and Maria Luisa of Parma from the moment they became engaged, it becomes the King wears the uniform of a Colonel of the Reales Guardias de Corps, while his wife appears clear that a given portrait often achieved official status thanks to the fact that its painter had re- in a magnificent evening gown. Like Goya’s equestrian works, these formal portraits do not ceived royal permission to paint the monarchs from life. In 1800, Goya was part of a scenario appear to have been intended to hang side by side. In fact, Goya seems to have been more con- that would have been unimaginable in earlier decades: in the short period of a few months, the cerned with where they would hang in the New Palace than with the development of a prototype Queen posed for him at least four times. Until then, artists had only been conceded a single as successful as his 1789 works had been. And yet, as soon as they were finished, Agustín Esteve session before their royal model, and the resulting sketch had to be used as a model for poste- began receiving calls to make copies for the most varied locations. The first of these must have rior commissions. That detail supports the idea that the full-length, equestrian, and family por- been a drawing he made in late 1799 for an illustration in the following year’s Guía de forasteros traits may have been conceived from the very start for a single space in the New Palace. In (Guide to Strangers, Madrid, Calcografía Nacional). On that occasion, Esteve may have drawn those circumstances, the use of a sole prototype for all the paintings would have generated a upon an as yet undiscovered portrait of Charles IV by Goya that differs in some ways from the rather monotonous portrait gallery. Likewise, Maria Luisa’s comments to Godoy about these one at the Royal Palace in Madrid.45 If we consider these two pairs of Goya portraits from the portraits—“they say they are coming out very well” and “they say that it is the best of all”— standpoint of the monarchs’ official iconography, we can see that they break with the tradition of would seem to indicate that Goya may not have shown these compositions to the monarchs half-length likenesses studied in the present text. Indeed, the full-length format had been practi- until they were entirely completed. Finally, it was undoubtedly rather bold for Goya to include cally absent from the iconography of the Bourbons since Charles III’s arrival in Spain. This does his own image in the large family portrait, but his depiction of himself in the process of paint- not mean that such works were never painted, but rather that, when they were, it was generally ing them brings a certain veracity to the representation. It is thus paradoxical that this group for representative use beyond Spain’s borders. portrait turns out to be the only one of the series of Charles and Maria Luisa of Parma to be The optimal culmination of this exploration of the iconography of Charles and Maria based on his preparatory sketches. Luisa undoubtedly comes with Goya’s group portrait of the royal family, which Charles IV called “the painting of all together.” But like the equestrian portraits, this work has its corresponding precedents in similar royal commissions of Mariano Maella and Francisco Folch de Cardona, which have been studied on earlier occasions.46 The idea of a programmatic family canvas had already arisen when the couple were still Prince and Princess of Asturias, and Mariano Maella was chosen to paint it at the time. The idea was soon abandoned, however, and did not really materialize until a few months after the coronation. In Maella’s delayed precedent for Goya, emphasis has generally been placed on the image of the monarchs, but what certainly underlies this work is the iconography of the Infante Ferdinand. Both times Maella was re18 quested to paint an updated image of Charles IV’s eldest son, he produced a sketch for the conJ o s é Manuel d e la M an o 19 Towards Goya’s Royal Couples * I would like to thank the following Spanish scholars: Javier which led his parents to submit him to the tutelage of painter indeed, due on these objects.” Letter from Juan Miguel de corner of this drawing has an old attribution to Maella, al- Antonio Richart, and he soon stood out over all the rest that Oyanide to the General Director of Taxes, dated July 23, cedes Simal for her willingness to share her documented though it has been attributed to his teacher, Mengs, ever painted from life at this teacher’s house, where he also 1790. AGS, Hacienda y Superintendencia de Hacienda, leg. knowledge of the Buen Retiro Palace; and Manolo González since it was published. The compositional differences be- learned the elements of coloring. 1283. González Arribas and Arribas Arranz 1961, p. 223 (tran- Fuertes for his unexpected visits to the most varied and tween this pencil sketch and Maella’s final canvas at the Her- Having moved to Madrid to follow a court case, he painted sundry local archives. Likewise, my thanks to French scholars mitage Museum are practically meaningless: the basket of whenever his work would let him. He then became known Sylvain Laveissière and Samuel Monier for sharing informa- flowers has been replaced by a terracotta jug and a clock, among professors and art lovers for the resemblance of some the Duchess of Infantado acquired from the artist “the large tion from their upcoming monographic exhibition of works and there is no longer a handkerchief in the sitter’s left hand. of the portraits he made. From there he moved to Murcia, portrait of the Queen of France made in Paris 1788, and for 22 Jordán de Urríes y de la Colina 2006c, vol. II, p. 638. and the Most Illustrious Manuel Rubin de Celis, Bishop of the portrait of Madame, the King’s daughter and of M. the 1 In the full-length portrait of Maria Luisa at the Metropolitan 23 The projection of this image of Maria Luisa of Parma as a do- that diocese, hired him for various jobs, including his portrait Dauphin, Study for the large Painting of the Queen.” Beniso- Museum of Art in New York (fig. 20), she shows the viewer mestic queen to her subjects was recently recovered by Calvo adorned with other figures, which hangs in the School of San this porcelain box with the image of her fiancé. Maturana 2007. Fulgencio. 38 AGP, Reinados, Carlos IV, Casa, leg. 142. Around that time he painted two hemispherical domes at 39 Documentation of the payment of this bill extends from No- by the painter Laurent Pécheux. 2 On November 3, 1764, Juan Domingo Pignatelli wrote to 24 A note in the margin of this letter reads: “On May 9, an order scribed in this publication as Bertmudler). 37 Some time after Louis XIV was beheaded, on June 23, 1793, vich 1956, p. 57 and Baticle 1979, pp. 124–27. Grimaldi from Parma: “that there was no better time to ex- was given for miniature portraits to be made from the origi- that main church in Cartagena, one at the Chapel of the vember 19, 1792 thorough December 22 of the same year. press the joy and incommensurable satisfaction I feel at news nals by Goya.” AGP, Expedientes Personales, caja 595, exp. 3. Virgin of the Sea with its narrative paintings, and one at the AGP, Reinados, Carlos IV, Casa, legs. 4 and 179, and Obras, of yesterday’s signing of the articles of the marriage treaty be- Morales y Marín 1994a, p. 287. Chapel of Saint John Nepomucene: a canvas for the altar- tween Our Lord, the Prince of Asturias, and the Lady Princess, Luisa.” Archivo General de Simancas (AGS) Estado, 25 Letter of May 2, 1789 to Martín Zapater. Águeda and Salas 1982 (2003), pp. 291–92. 26 Some weeks earlier, Eugenio Ximénez de Cisneros had leg. 5185. piece of Saint Rita and two others for two altarpieces at the church of Saint Augustine, all in Cartagena. He then went to Jumilla, where he painted six chapels, the transept, a paint- 3 De la Mano 1999, p. 86. painted some portraits of this type, as on April 11, 1789 the ing of the Good Shepherd for the main altarpiece and those 4 On May 23, 1765, Tomás Francisco Prieto (1716–1782) wrote caja 18220, exp. 19. 40 The approximate dimensions of this equestrian portrait by Folch de Cardona would have been 314 x 257 cm. Museo del Prado 1990, p. 699. 41 This equestrian portrait by Folch de Cardona has been re- Marquis of Zambrano was instructed: “See to it that payment of the life of the Virgin at the new church; the Assumption ferred to as a copy of Goya’s, which is impossible since it to José Nicolás de Azara: “Send me the wax model, because is made through the General Treasury to Eugenio Ximénez of the Virgin for the high altar at the parish of Molina and was painted almost a decade earlier. Morales y Marín 1997b, there is Mengs for this prince, and me for the plaster, but all de Cisneros, Court Painter, requiring only his receipt for one many other works for the temples of that Bishopric and for the same, I want to have the wax present.” Villena 2004, pp. thousand eight hundred reales of billon as payment for two private individuals.” Testimony of Ceán Bermúdez. BNE, ms. 42 Rodríguez Torres 2008, pp. 121–39. 197–98. portraits he has made for the Jewels that are customarily 21.455 (8), fols. 49–49v. 43 Águeda 1987, p. 50. p. 42. 5 Bollea 1936, p. 394. given to ambassadors.” AGP, Reinados, Carlos IV, Casa, leg. 35 Benisovich 1956, pp. 54–56. 44 Mena Marqués 2002b, pp. 89–93. 6 Ros 2005, p. 408. 177. 36 “The Minister of Sweden at this court requests in the adjoin- 45 To date, it has been repeatedly stated that this drawing by 7 Archivio di Stato di Parma (ASP), Carteggio Farnesiano e Bor- bonico Estero, Spagna, b. 152 (former 29), draft of the letter 27 De la Mano 2007a, pp. 147–54. ing statement that we are sending to Your Excellency that Agustín Esteve now at the Calcografía Nacional is a reproduc- 28 According to Ceán Bermúdez, José Camarón y Meliá “in and you order the free delivery to Ms. Bermuller, Court Painter of tion of the full-length portrait of the monarch wearing the from Du Tillot to the Marquis of Grimaldi dated January 13, outside of Madrid, particularly on the occasion of our present His Majesty of Sweden, two boxes with paints and painting uniform of the Real Guardia de Corps. And yet, Charles IV is 1765. Ros 2005, p. 408. Monarch’s enthronement [Charles IV] on the canvas of Mount utensils and eight Paintings one of them of his own portraits looking in the opposite direction and his frockcoat is differ- 8 AGS, Estado, leg. 5188. Urrea Fernández 1989a, p. 788. Parnassus, which was hung in the Palace plaza: in the ball- of the French royal family and the others studies for his use ent, with a slightly higher collar and without the Golden 9 Ibidem. room built in the house of the Most Excellent Duke of Osuna that were inspected at this Customs in accordance with Your Fleece, which Rafael Esteve included in his burin engraving and in other places.” Excellency’s order of last May the 23rd, and adds that he does 10 Benito García and Urrea Fernández 2003, pp. 60–66. 11 ASP, Carteggio Farnesiano e Borbonico Estero, Spagna, b. 152 29 “Bill for four Portraits of the King and Queen that I have (former 29), draft of the letter from Du Tillot to the Marquis painted at the behest of the Most excellent Count of Campo- of Grimaldi dated April 14, 1765. Ros 2005, p. 409. manes, on the originals that His Excellency possesses and 12 “I cannot express to Your Excellency how angry I am about the King and two others of the Queen (Our Lords) at fifteen ping with two other people. I very clearly asked whether doubloons for each one so the four cost sixty doubloons that they had taken all the necessary precautions and they told are three thousand six hundred reales 3,600 rs. This amount I me everything would be alright: The painter told me he did have received from Señor Manuel Monfort and as such I sign not want anyone else to touch it; and those, in truth, are the in Madrid on February 20, 1791. Josef Camaron.” Caceres, facts of this misfortune. Anyway, my displeasure does not Archivo Histórico Provincial, Sección Real Audiencia, leg. 1, remedy the damage done, although I see that Mr. Mengs is to exp. 32, fol. 8. Hurtado 1998, pp. 178–80. When this docu- repair it. That consoles me.” ASP, Carteggio Farnesiano e Bor- ment was located, it was associated with José Camarón Bo30 Sambricio 1946, pp. XCI–XCII. 1765. Ros 2005, p. 409. 31 If the hypothesis that Charles IV was holding a scepter in the 13 Parker 1966, p. 183. original prototype by Goya is true, it might be possible to 14 ASP, Carteggio Farnesiano e Borbonico Estero, Spagna, b. 152 identify that first work with X-rays, which would allow us to of Grimaldi dated June 2, 1765. 15 Roettgen 1999–2003, vol. I, p. 566. 16 It has frequently been said that Mengs based his portrait of verify the existence of a possible pentimento in that regard. 32 Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE), ms. 21.455 (8), fol. 39v. 33 Ceán Bermúdez said of Antonio Carnicero: “He made various Maria Luisa of Parma on Pécheux’s, but his theory is quite works and most were for private citizens and different life- improbable. The distance of only a few months between one size portraits of Their Majesties for City Halls in Spain. He is painting and the other could undoubtedly justify their clear the author of those at the City Halls of Madrid, Seville, Cadiz formal similarities. and Bilbao, and for the Consulates in the Americas. And 17 Kagané 2007, pp. 37–44. there has been much praise for the one he just made of the 18 Madrid, Archivo General de Palacio (AGP), Administrativa, Most Excellent Prince of Peace, which is also life sized and leg. 38, with a copy in AGP, Registro no. 118, Grefier Reales Órdenes 1770–74, vol. 4, Casa, fols. 176v–77. Águeda 1980, pp. 30 and 34–35. Roettgen 1999–2003, vol. I, p. 200. on horseback. ” 34 “Folch de Cardona, D. Francisco, painter. Born in Valencia to a very distinguished family in 1733, he 19 Kagané 2007, p. 38. showed an interest in painting from childhood, sketching 20 AGS, Estado, leg. 6638. semblances of his fellow students at elementary school; J o s é Manuel d e la M an o for the print. 46 De la Mano 2007b, pp. 647–55. nanat, but this bill is signed by his son, José Camarón y Meliá. from Du Tillot to the Marquis of Grimaldi dated April 28, (former 29), draft of the letter from Du Tillot to the Marquis not seek to avoid payment of the Royal rights if any were, they are for the Royal Court of Caceres. For two portraits of what has happened to the portrait. The painter did the wrap- bonico Estero, Spagna, b. 152 (former 29), draft of the letter 20 21 Roettgen 1999–2003, vol. I, pp. 251–52. The lower right Jordán de Urríes, for his customary and essential aid; Mer- 21 Towards Goya’s Royal Couples