The Escorial: A Historical and Descriptive Account of the Spanish Royal Palace, Monastery and MausoleumCalvert, Albert Frederick
History
The Escorial: A Historical and Descriptive Account of the Spanish Royal Palace, Monastery and Mausoleum
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Escorial
There are several pictures of the French and Flemish schools in this
room, including ‘San Geronimo,’ by Holbein. Bassano and Zuccaro are
represented, and there are a few paintings in the Florentine style, but
none of especial merit. Maëlla, a Spanish painter, who worked between
1739 and 1819, had some reputation as a fresco designer, and became a
Court artist under Charles IV. at the time when Goya was producing some
of his finest pictures. Goya subsequently took the place of Mariano
Maëlla as the king’s painter. In this room there is an ‘Immaculate
Conception’ by Maëlla.
A brother of the Order of San Geronimo painted the ceiling, and another
monk carved the figure of their patron saint upon the altar screen.
Portraits of the fathers of the Monastery are hung in the Upper Prior’s
Chamber. The paintings are mostly by minor Spanish artists and Italians
who worked at the Escorial. Sanchez Coello’s portrait of Padre Sigüenza,
the earliest chronicler of the Monastery, has been copied and hangs
here. In an ante-chamber are oil-paintings by Giordano and copies of
pictures by Reni, Raphael, and Rubens. The ‘Conception’ is by Francisco
Bayeu, a contemporary of Maëlla, who painted frescoes in many of the
Castilian churches. Bayeu’s daughter, Josefa, was the wife of the
brilliant Goya.
The Prior’s Oratory contains portraits of Charles III. and Maria of
Saxony and an old German picture of saints. There is also a sculpture of
the ‘Conception.’ The Lower Prior’s Chamber or cell has the one work of
Francisco Urbino to be seen in the Escorial, a fresco of some interest.
There is a picture by Pantoja, a portrait of the Emperor Charles in his
youth. The portraits of Maria Luisa and of Charles IV. are copies from
Goya’s works. Vicente López, who painted the portrait of Maria, wife of
Ferdinand VII., was a painter of some eminence and a contemporary of
Goya. López executed one of the best portraits of Goya.
The Carreño portraits in this apartment are good examples of the work of
this artist, who belonged to the school of Madrid. Carreño de Miranda
was a pupil of Pedro de los Cuevas, and a follower of Velazquez, who
obtained for him a commission to paint pictures of the Royal Palace of
Madrid. Carreño was made a Court painter after the death of the great
Velazquez, and many of his pictures are to be seen in the churches of
Spain and at the Escorial.
Doña Luisa Roldan’s figure of San Miguel is in the vestry. This is a
specimen of the wood carving for which the sculptors of Spain were
famous. The art of carving effigies in wood was revived successfully in
Andalusia by Martinez Montañéz, who died in 1649; and among his
followers were Pedro Roldan and Hernandez, who produced a large number
of carved images for churches and for exhibition in religious
processions. Doña Luisa Roldan, a daughter of Pedro, owed her
inspiration to the master of this art, but her achievements fall short
of the perfection which he attained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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