CARREÑO DE MIRANDA, Juan

In this painting the artist followed the example of Rubens’s compositions which he could know from the engravings by Paulus Pontius and Schelte Adams Bolswert.

Carreño was appointed to the rank of court painter in 1671. Once installed as court painter, Carreño, like his illustrious predecessor Vel�zquez, devoted himself principally to portraiture. The physiognomy of Charles II as not inspiring, it revealed the consequences of six generations of inbreeding. However, Carreño did his job with skill and dignity. The secret of his success is a compositional format in which the sitters are depicted within a state room in the palace, most frequently the famous Hall of Mirrors. This device allowed the artist to soften the impact of the king’s appearance by drawing attention to the surroundings, especially the fascinating reflections of the pictures in the room. As the king aged, he grew inexorably uglier. In this flamboyant portrait of Charles as grandmaster of the Golden Fleece, the disparity between the regal trappings and the lost soul encased within them is profoundly unsettling. The very brilliance of execution only heightens the impression of the king’s inadequacy for his lofty office.

The artist painted in Toledo and Madrid. Charles II, successor to Philip IV, viewed him with favour, and in 1669 he was made painter to the King. Although his religious paintings are of unusual quality, his main interest was painting portraits, the finest being that of the Duke Pastrana, now in the Prado.

This mature portrait by Carreño, the impact of the dark and imposing, pyramidal figure of the Duke is counterbalanced by very delicate and melancholic coloring. Carreño’s work here recalls the portraiture of Van Dyck in England.

In 1669 Carreño was made court painter to King Charles II. He executed several portraits of the king.

This painting is a modello (the final study) for the large altarpiece which is in the Louvre since 1964.

In 1664 the Trinitarian order in Pamplona completed a new monastic complex and turned Carreño and Francisco Rizi to paint the altarpiece for the church. The Trinitarian order had been founded in the late twelfth century by the Frenchman John of Matha, and the altarpiece illustrates a key moment in his career. As St John of Matha raised the host during his first mass, he saw a vision of a young boy dressed in white (here converted into an angel), with arms crossed and hands resting on the heads of two prisoners, one a Christian, one a Moor. From this vision the saint divined his earthly mission, to establish a religious order devoted to the redemption of Christian prisoners.

The composition was designed by Rizi but it is signed and dated only by Carreño. The composition is set within a monumental space, opening at the right on a serene, luminous landscape. St John of Matha is flanked by priests wearing rich, sparkling vestments woven with gold and silver threads. The onlookers focus their eyes on the priest, who lifts the sacramental wafer, and lean forward, drawn inexorably by the power of the incipient miracle. Above the throng, in the airy upper reaches of the space, the artist demonstrates his command of movement and foreshortening.

This painting represents the culmination of the two artists’ partnership soon to dissolve; neither artist working alone would again be able to create a picture of this quality and complexity.

Charles II, King of Spain (1661-1700) is portrayed here at the age of about 14. Carreño was appointed ‘Pintor de C�mara’ in 1671 and for the remainder of the decade painted several portraits of the young King in this precise pose, documenting his growing stature through adolescence. Until 1675 Charles is always depicted, as here, in the Sal�n de los Espejos in the Alc�zar, where Carreño had worked in 1659 under the supervision of Vel�zquez; his left hand resting his hat on the table-top and his right hand loosely holding a letter.

This portrait shows the influence of both Vel�zquez and Van Dyck. The identification of the sitter is doubtful. Earlier the painting was attributed to Juan Bautista del Mazo.

Mariana de Austria was the daughter of German Emperor Ferdinand III and Doña Mar�a, daughter of the sister of Philip IV, King of Spain. She married her uncle, Philip IV in 1649, and after the death of the king she governed Spain until the coming of age of their son, Crown Prince Carlos. In this painting the Queen is represented sitting in the Salon of Mirrors in the Alc�zar in Madrid.

In this portrait Carreño follows the tradition of Vel�zquez.

The painting represents the popular saint of Spain arisen from his grave to help the Spanish army against the Moors in the battle of Clavijo. In the painting the prancing white steed forces its way through fallen and dying unbelievers while in the background fleeing Moors can be just barely made out.

The painting, which paraphrases Rubens’s St George (Prado, Madrid), is signed on the thong on the chest of the horse.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 12 minutes):

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: The Battle, suite

Many of Carreño’s religious subjects date to his later years, combining compositional schemes inspired by Rubens and Van Dyck with a technique inspired by the careful study of Venetian masters, especially Titian.