Francisco de Goya

The Family of the Infante Don Luis (La familia del Infante don Luis)

The Family of the Infante Don Luis (La familia del Infante don Luis)
Datos Generales
Cronología
1783 - 1784
Ubicación
Fondazione Magnani Rocca. Parma, Parma, Italy
Dimensiones
248 x 328 cm
Técnica y soporte
Oil on canvas
Reconocimiento de la autoría de Goya
Undisputed work
Titular
Magnani-Rocca Foundation
Ficha: realización/revisión
20 Jan 2010 / 15 Jun 2023
Historia

This canvas went from the collection of the Infante Don Luis, in Arenas de San Pedro (Ávila), to that of his daughter, María Teresa de Bourbon y Vallabriga, in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), in 1820. From there it was left to her daughter, Carlota Luisa de Godoy y Bourbon, who married the Roman prince Camillo Ruspoli. When Carlota Luisa died, in 1886, the painting went to the Ruspoli family and in 1904 was taken to their palace in Florence. In 1974 it was acquired by Luigi Magnani.

Análisis artístico

The canvas was painted during Goya's second stay in Arenas de San Pedro (Ávila), this time accompanied by his wife, Josefa Bayeu, between June and October of 1784. A letter from the painter to his close friend Martín Zapater dated 20 September 1783 tells us of his first stay there and of his good relations with Luis de Bourbon.

This was the first large composition tackled by Goya, a large-scale group portrait, seventeen years before he was to paint the one of the family of Charles IV.

María Teresa de Vallabriga is shown seated in the centre of the composition, wearing a striking white peignoir and looking straight out at the viewer whilst her hairdresser, Santos Gracia, arranges her hair. In front of her is a table on which her husband, the Infante Don Luis de Bourbon, shown in sharp profile, is playing cards. To the left of the composition are the couple's two children, the Infante Don Luis and Doña María Teresa, the future Countess of Chinchón. Behind the children stand two maids, Antonia de Vanderbrocht and Petronila de Valdearenas, holding a headdress and a box of scented essences. In the bottom left-hand corner, crouched down and in the shadow, we see Goya himself, painting at a large canvas shown in sharp perspective.

To the right of the infanta, and arranged as in a frieze, from left to right, are, according to the most widely accepted interpretation: the nanny, Isidra Fuentes, with the young María Luisa in her arms; Manuel Moreno de las Heras, the most heavily-built of all those depicted and an officer in the infante's secretariat; Gregorio Ruiz de Arce, butler, or possibly Estanislao de Lugo y Molina, Luis María's tutor, or the cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini; Francisco del Campo, María Teresa's private secretary and the person who introduced Goya to Don Luis' circle; and Alejandro de la Cruz, Court Painter to the king. The background of this family and court reunion is provided by some large, half-drawn curtains, of a deep green colour.

A copy of this work exists in the collection of the Duke and Duchess of Sueca.

Exposiciones
  • De Greco á Picasso. Cinq siècles d’art espagnol
    Musée du Petit Palais
    París
    1987
    from October 10th 1987 to January 3th 1988
  • Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Museo Nacional del Prado
    Madrid
    1988
    from October 6th to December 18th 1988. Exhibited also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, January 18th to March 26th 1989; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, May 9th to July 16th 1989, Madrid curator Manuela B. Mena Marqués, scientific directors Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Eleanor A. Sayre
  • Goya e la tradizione italiana
    Fondazione Magnani Rocca
    Mamiano di Traversetolo (Parma)
    2006
    consultant editors Fred Licht and Simona Tosini Pizzetti. From September 9th to December 3th 2006
  • Goya e Italia
    Museo de Zaragoza
    Zaragoza
    2008
    organized by the Fundación Goya en Aragóna, consultant editor Joan Sureda Pons. From June 1st to September 15th 2008
  • Goya y el infante don Luis: el exilio y el reino.
    Palacio Real, Madrid
    Madrid
    2012
    Arte y ciencia en la época de la ilustración española. Responsable científico Francisco Calvo Serraller. Del octubre de 2012 a enero de 2013.
  • Goya: Order and disorder
    Museum of Fine Arts
    Boston
    2014
  • Goya: The Portraits
    London
    2015
  • Goya
    Basle
    2021
Bibliografía
  • VIÑAZA, Conde de la
    Goya, su tiempo, su vida, sus obras
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridTipografía de Manuel G. Hernández, Impresor de la Real Casa
    1887
    p. 224, cat. XXVIII
  • DESPARMET FITZ - GERALD, Xavier
    L'œuvre peint de Goya. 4 vols
    Bibliography']['number
    París
    1928-1950
    vol. II, p. 35, cat. 315
  • ANGULO ÍÑIGUEZ, Diego
    La Familia del Infante don Luis, pintada por Goya
    Archivo español de Arte
    Bibliography']['number
    Madrid
    1940
    p. 49-58
  • SÁNCHEZ CANTÓN. Francisco Javier
    Vida y obras de Goya
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridEditorial Peninsular
    1951
    p. 94, cat.208
  • GUDIOL RICART, José
    Bibliography']['number
    BarcelonaPolígrafa
    1970
    vol. I, p. 258, cat.152
  • PÉREZ SÁNCHEZ, Alfonso E. y SAYRE, Eleanor A. (directores) and MENA, Manuela B. (comisaria)
    Goya y el espíritu de la Ilustración
    Bibliography']['number
    MadridMuseo del Prado
    1988
    pp. 146-148 (il.) y 149, cat. 5
  • TOSINI PIZZETTI, S. (ed.)
    Fondazione Magnani-Roca. Catalogo Generale
    Bibliography']['number
    Nardini
    2001
    pp. 131-133.
  • SUREDA PONS, Joan (comisario)
    Goya e Italia, 2 vols.
    Bibliography']['number
    ZaragozaFundación Goya en Aragón y Turner
    2008
    vol I, p. 193 (il.) y vol II, pp. 300 y
  • ILCHMAN, Frederick y STEPANEK, Stephanie L. (comisarios)
    Goya: Order & Disorder
    Bibliography']['number
    BostonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston Publications
    2014
    pp. 96-97
  • BRAY, Xavier
    Bibliography']['number
    LondonNational Gallery Company
    2015
    pp. 45-47
Enlaces externos
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