Ricardo Villodas y de la Torre trained as a painter at the Madrid Fine Art School under Federico Madrazo, and received numerous accolades: a medal at the 1868 Aragonese Exhibition for the painting The Soup Kitchen; Second Place Medal at the 1876 National Fine Arts Exhibition for The Death of Cesar and another Second Place Medal for Message from Charles I to Cardinal Cisneros in 1878, a painting that was also exhibited at the Paris World Fair of the same year. In 1874 his work appeared in the group exhibition of modern artists organised by the industrialist Pedro Bosch.

• Julián Gállego Serrano
• María José Alonso

The profession of this highly educated man before he went into politics was journalism. During Spain’s ‘Glorious Revolution’, Andrés Mellado Fernández defended his republican, democratic ideas in his articles in the newspaper El Amigo del Pueblo. Diario de la República Democrática Federal, founded in Madrid in 1868. He later worked on the editorial team of La Igualdad, the newspaper that took over El Amigo del Pueblo, and which was also on the republican side. In 1875, after the Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, Mellado began to work at El Imparcial. He was its editor from 1879 to 1889, in whch time he modernised the paper and made it very popular. He joined Sagasta’s Fusionist Party and harshly attacked Canovas’s governments in his articles.

At the end of 1889, he was elected Mayor of Madrid and managed to straighten out the municipal finances during his term in office. He resigned as mayor in 1890 to return to journalism and took over as editor of La Correspondencia de España, founded in 1859. Cayetano Sánchez Bustillo replaced him as mayor and then went on to be appointed as Governor of the Banco de España (August 1890). Mellado combined his journalistic career with politics, and was elected as a member of parliament on several occasions (1881, 1884, 1886, 1891, 1893, 1896, 1898 and 1899), a senator in 1898 and a lifetime senator in 1901.

Mellado was appointed Governor of the Banco de España in July 1902, but held the post for barely six months. Between June 1903 and October 1905, he was Minister for Public Instruction and Fine Arts. 

In 1912 he was elected to Chair K at the Spanish Royal Academy and his maiden speech was on the life of Francisco Silvela, whom he considered a literary gem. He died in Biarritz (France), where he had travelled to recuperate from a bronchial disease. His body was taken to Madrid by train and was received at the Norte Station by the members of the Government and leading dignitaries. Mellado was a great journalist and inspired many journalists of subsequent generations.

Elena Serrano García