Spanish school; ca. 1800.
"Portrait of Maria Fernanda.
Oil on canvas.
Preserves original canvas and frame of the period.
It presents faults in the frame.
Measurements: 90 x 65,5 cm; 101 x 76 cm (frame).
In this canvas the author captures a child portrait in which the protagonist has been captured with great dignity and composure. In the 19th century, the panorama of the European portrait was very varied, with numerous influences and schools. As in all genres, it was determined by the taste of the clientele, but also by the hand of the artist. It was in this century that a new concept of portraiture was born, one that spread rapidly: the desire to capture the personality of the human being, beyond his or her social rank. The formulas, moreover, became more relaxed with the rise to economic power of social classes whose members did not always belong to the nobility, moving away from the rigid etiquette of the 17th century and the ostentatiousness of the Baroque apparatus. It is this interest in the individual that gives rise to works such as the present one, without any symbolic or scenographic apparatus, or relating to his office or social position. Baroque forms were maintained in Spain until the arrival of the French-influenced Rococo in the mid-18th century. With the arrival of the Bourbons, elements foreign to the closed Spanish Baroque also penetrated the court. Thus, it can be said that, in some cases, a trend closer to the style of the previous century was maintained alongside another closer to the aesthetic novelties introduced from the court in Madrid. Although this was not a continuation of our Golden Age, it is worth mentioning important figures such as Acisclo Antonio Palomino (1655-1726), Miguel Jacinto Meléndez (Oviedo, 1679 - Madrid, 1734) or Antonio Viladomat y Manalt (Barcelona, 1678- 1755) and, of course, the indisputable figure of Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Fuendetodos, 1746- Bordeaux, France, 1828).