The son of a modest painter of the same name, Mariano Salvador Maella was born in Valencia in 1739, although he moved to Madrid with his family while still a child. There, his father placed him In the workshop of sculptor Felipe de Castro. At Castro’s suggestion, he entered the Real Academia de San Fernando in 1752, receiving painting prizes that bear witness to both his quality and his style’s compatibility with the ideals defended by that institution under the direction of Antonio González Velázquez. By 1759, Maella was 20 years old and living in Cádiz (almost certainly with his family, and possibly with the idea of travelling to America to make his fortune). That year, he moved to Rome, alone and at his own expense, as the institution had not seen fit to assign him a study grant. From there, however, he requested an extraordinary grant from the Academia de San Fernando to complete his education in Rome where, by the mid-eighteenth century, the influence of Corrado Giaquinto and the late Rococo were gradually giving way to emerging neoclassical ideals. His Academy stipend of 4 reales a month was sufficient, as he also enjoyed the patronage of José Torrubia, an author and scientist of the Franciscan Order. Following Torrubia’s death, Maella received a decisive grant of 400 ducats from the Academia de San Fernando, which was, in fact, equivalent to official study grants.
An interesting sketchbook from Maella’s time in Rome, now at the Museo del Prado, contains a notable group of copies that reveal the young artist’s interest in precisely registering a variety of classical sculptures and paintings, as well as details of figures from churches and palaces by Renaissance or seventeenthcentury Roman classicist artists.
After returning to Spain in 1764, he was appointed a member of the Academia de San Fernando, but the turning point in his career came with his appointment as court painter, under the direction of Anton Raphael Mengs. This led to numerous decorative projects for the Royal Palace, as well as other royal commissions, including ideas for cartoons at the Royal Tapestry Factory and a major part of the monumental group of frescoes for the cloister at Toledo Cathedral. He combined his career at court with activity at the Academia de San Fernando, where he was appointed Assistant Director of Painting in 1782, Director of Painting in 1794, and General Director of that institution in 1795, following Francisco Bayeu’s death.
Maella finally became First Painter to the King in 1799 — at the same time as Francisco de Goya, who had served him since 1785. He had also served the monarch in other ways, drawing up inventories of the royal collection and directing a team of painters employed as restorers to maintain the king’s important collection of paintings in proper condition. Moreover, from the very beginning, Maella played an important role as a painter of portraits of the king and other court personalites. There, his brilliant and colourful technique and his idea of perfection closely reflect Mengs’s models.
With the new century, Maella began to lose the support of his patrons, of influential public figures such as Godoy, who was more interested in Goya, and even of the monarchs. He had accepted decorations and prizes from King Joseph Bonaparte, and lacking the support of important political figures, as was the case with Goya, he was subjected to “purification” as a public servant when Ferdinand VII returned, although he received a lifetime pension “by way of alms.” Maella died in 1819.
Along with Francisco Bayeu, Maella was unquestionably one of the most significant and influential artists employed by the court during the second half of the eighteenth century, and he held the highest posts there. His paintings combine Neoclassicism’s rationally ordered compositions with the movement and brilliant colours associated with the late Baroque and Rococo, deeply rooted in the work of Corrado Giaquinto. His technical ease reveals his Valencian origins, with free, loose and delicate brushstrokes that distinguish him from his contemporaries, especially in his altarpiece paintings and sketches. His large-format works, particularly his large decorative frescoes at the collegiate church of La Granja (1772), the chapel in El Pardo (1778), the cloisters of Toledo Cathedral (1775-1776), and the Casita del Príncipe at El Pardo (1789), follow the guidelines set out by Mengs, including numerous figures with classical grace and delicacy, exquisite detail (for example in their hands and in the subtle movement of their heads) and the enveloping beauty of the folds of their clothing.
The son of a modest painter of the same name, Mariano Salvador Maella was born in Valencia in 1739, although he moved to Madrid with his family while still a child. There, his father placed him In the workshop of sculptor Felipe de Castro. At Castro’s suggestion, he entered the Real Academia de San Fernando in 1752, receiving painting prizes that bear witness to both his quality and his style’s compatibility with the ideals defended by that institution under the direction of Antonio González Velázquez. By 1759, Maella was 20 years old and living in Cádiz (almost certainly with his family, and possibly with the idea of travelling to America to make his fortune). That year, he moved to Rome, alone and at his own expense, as the institution had not seen fit to assign him a study grant. From there, however, he requested an extraordinary grant from the Academia de San Fernando to complete his education in Rome where, by the mid-eighteenth century, the influence of Corrado Giaquinto and the late Rococo were gradually giving way to emerging neoclassical ideals. His Academy stipend of 4 reales a month was sufficient, as he also enjoyed the patronage of José Torrubia, an author and scientist of the Franciscan Order. Following Torrubia’s death, Maella received a decisive grant of 400 ducats from the Academia de San Fernando, which was, in fact, equivalent to official study grants.
An interesting sketchbook from Maella’s time in Rome, now at the Museo del Prado, contains a notable group of copies that reveal the young artist’s interest in precisely registering a variety of classical sculptures and paintings, as well as details of figures from churches and palaces by Renaissance or seventeenthcentury Roman classicist artists.
After returning to Spain in 1764, he was appointed a member of the Academia de San Fernando, but the turning point in his career came with his appointment as court painter, under the direction of Anton Raphael Mengs. This led to numerous decorative projects for the Royal Palace, as well as other royal commissions, including ideas for cartoons at the Royal Tapestry Factory and a major part of the monumental group of frescoes for the cloister at Toledo Cathedral. He combined his career at court with activity at the Academia de San Fernando, where he was appointed Assistant Director of Painting in 1782, Director of Painting in 1794, and General Director of that institution in 1795, following Francisco Bayeu’s death.
Maella finally became First Painter to the King in 1799 — at the same time as Francisco de Goya, who had served him since 1785. He had also served the monarch in other ways, drawing up inventories of the royal collection and directing a team of painters employed as restorers to maintain the king’s important collection of paintings in proper condition. Moreover, from the very beginning, Maella played an important role as a painter of portraits of the king and other court personalites. There, his brilliant and colourful technique and his idea of perfection closely reflect Mengs’s models.
With the new century, Maella began to lose the support of his patrons, of influential public figures such as Godoy, who was more interested in Goya, and even of the monarchs. He had accepted decorations and prizes from King Joseph Bonaparte, and lacking the support of important political figures, as was the case with Goya, he was subjected to “purification” as a public servant when Ferdinand VII returned, although he received a lifetime pension “by way of alms.” Maella died in 1819.
Along with Francisco Bayeu, Maella was unquestionably one of the most significant and influential artists employed by the court during the second half of the eighteenth century, and he held the highest posts there. His paintings combine Neoclassicism’s rationally ordered compositions with the movement and brilliant colours associated with the late Baroque and Rococo, deeply rooted in the work of Corrado Giaquinto. His technical ease reveals his Valencian origins, with free, loose and delicate brushstrokes that distinguish him from his contemporaries, especially in his altarpiece paintings and sketches. His large-format works, particularly his large decorative frescoes at the collegiate church of La Granja (1772), the chapel in El Pardo (1778), the cloisters of Toledo Cathedral (1775-1776), and the Casita del Príncipe at El Pardo (1789), follow the guidelines set out by Mengs, including numerous figures with classical grace and delicacy, exquisite detail (for example in their hands and in the subtle movement of their heads) and the enveloping beauty of the folds of their clothing.