Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

Miguel de Torres y Ruiz de Rivera, III marqués de Matallana [Miguel de Torres y Ruiz de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Matallana]

Image caption
PIETRO MELCHIORRE FERRARI

Miguel de Torres y Ruiz de Rivera, III marqués de Matallana [Miguel de Torres y Ruiz de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Matallana]

  • 1785
  • Oil on canvas
  • 101,5 x 76 cm
  • Cat. P_162
  • Commissioned from the artist by the Banco Nacional de San Carlos in 1784
By:
Alfonso Pérez Sánchez

The sitter was Governor of the recently founded Banco de San Carlos, but left Madrid in June 1783 on being appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to His Highness the Crown Prince and Duke of Parma. This meant that if the bank was to maintain its policy of having portraits painted of all its governors then that of the Marquis would have to be painted in Italy. This is why an Italian artist was commissioned: Pietro Melchiorre Ferrari produced the picture in Parma in 1785, two years before his death. Records located by researcher José Maria Sanz Garcia in the historical archives of the current Banco de España show that the price of 2200 pounds was reimbursed to the Marquis in February 1786, which means that he doubtless had to advance the amount from his own pocket.

The portrait is in the 'Enlightenment' style common in Italy at the time. Its equivalent in Spain can be seen in some of the portraits painted by Francisco de Goya. A sheet of paper on the table, probably a memorial or prayer, identifies the sitter in the following words: 'To the Marquis of Matallana, Commander of Fuente del Moral of the Order of Calatrava and Minster Plenipotentiary to His Majesty at the Court of Parma'. Further clues as to the character of the sitter can be found in the statue of Minerva, an allusion to intelligence and the cultivation of knowledge, and in the beautifully bound book that he holds in his left hand, in a careless gesture of a type frequently found in portraits of well-educated aristocrats by artists such as Antoine Watteau and Pompeo Batoni. Indeed the general tone of the picture is reminiscent of the latter's work. The style is somewhat neo-classical, but shows a flicker of the spirit of high rhetoric and moral containment that was to come when the Enlightenment was in full swing, in the paintings of Anton Raphael Mengs and Jacques-Louis David.

During Matellana’s tenure as Spain's plenipotentiary in Parma, Giuseppe Baldrighi (1723-1803) and Pietro Melchiore Ferrari were the most renowned artists in courtly portrait painting circles. Ferrari was appointed official portrait painter to the court in 1785. In this role he produced a portrait of Ferdinand 1 of Bourbon, Duke of Parma (now held by the National Gallery in Parma) which adhered to all the requirements of protocol, and a beautiful, much loved portrait of Minister Guillaume du Tillot (also at the National Gallery in Parma). The latter is one of his best-known works, and it shares certain features with this portrait of the Marquis of Matallana, such as the look in the eyes and the precise drawing of the hands. Another similarity is that the sitter is also holding a beautifully bound book.

Comments updated by Carlos Martín.

Alfonso Pérez Sánchez

 
By:
Alfonso Pérez Sánchez
Pietro Melchiorre Ferrari
Sissa 1735 - Parma 1787

Pietro Melchiorre Ferrari trained initially with his father Paolo, a humble religious painter, and went on to be a student of Vittorio Bigari in Bologna. In Rome he frequented the recently created Academy of Fine Arts, where he met Giuseppe Baldrighi, who was to become his true master and guide. He won prizes in successive competitions at the Academy in 1758, 1760 and 1761, with the last of these leading to his admission as a member of the Academy and a post as a teacher of drawing there. In 1774 he was made an honorary member of the Clementine Academy of Bologna, and in 1785 he became the official portrait painter to the Court City of Parma, under the protection of Minster Guillaume du Tillot, whose portrait he had painted and whose palazzo he had decorated.

He worked in a wide range of genres, and stands at the transition from the rococo style to a contained form of neo-classicism. At the time of his death he was working on a large painting of the family of the Crown Prince.

Sources and bibliography:

Lucía Fornani Schianchi L’arte a Parma dai Farnese ai Borbone, Parma: Alfa, 1979, pp. 111-122.

Alfonso Pérez Sánchez

 
By:
Paloma Gómez Pastor
Miguel de Torres y Ruiz de Rivera (Segovia 1738 - Madrid 1817)

He was the son of Rodrigo de Torres y Morales, 1st Marquis of Matallana, and of Isabel Cayetana Ruiz de Rivera (b. Mexico, 1704). Little is known of his childhood years. He joined the Order of Calatrava at an early age and went into business. He was one of the founders of the Banco de San Carlos in 1782, was a shareholder and became governor in 1783.

He joined the diplomatic corps and was appointed Minster Plenipotentiary at the Court of Parma that same year. In 1790 he moved to Naples as envoy extraordinaire and minister plenipotentiary. After a brief time in Spain, he returned to Naples in 1791, where the strained relations between the Spanish monarchy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies placed him in a difficult position. That strain was exacerbated by the intrigues of the Marchioness of Matallana against the Queen of Naples.

In 1793 he sought licence to return to Spain. He was appointed ambassador to Venice in 1795 but the Marchioness was arrested for her involvement in the so-called 'Malasplina plot' and confined to the convent of Monterrey in Galicia. In 1796 she was banished to Italy and forbidden to reside with her husband for so long as he held office.

When Venice was occupied by French troops in 1797 he moved to Parma, where he rejected the post of ambassador to Russia and requested retirement so that he might join his wife. His resignation was accepted, he was granted honours and the wage of a Counsel of State, on condition that he should live outside Spain. The marquis and marchioness remained in Italy for several years until they were able to bring their exile to an end on the restoration of Ferdinand VII. They sailed to Barcelona in 1814 and set up house in Madrid.

In 1771 he married Maria Fernanda O’Connock y Magesie, of Irish ancestry, a lady in waiting to Queen Marie Louise (1795).

Extract from: D. Ozanam: Diccionario biográfico español, Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2009-2013.

Paloma Gómez Pastor

 
«El Banco de España. Dos siglos de historia (1782-1982)», Banco de España (Madrid, 1982). «2328 reales de vellón. Goya and the Origins of the Banco de España Collection», Banco de España (Madrid, 2021-2022).
José María Sanz García Madrid, ¿capital del capital español? Contribución a la geografía urbana y a las funciones geoeconómicas de la Villa y Corte, Madrid, Instituto de Estudios Madrileños, 1975. Vv.Aa. El Banco de España. Dos siglos de historia. 1782-1982, Madrid, Banco de España, 1982. Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez & Julián Gállego Banco de España. Colección de pintura, Madrid, Banco de España, 1985. Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Julián Gállego & María José Alonso Colección de pintura del Banco de España, Madrid, Banco de España, 1988. Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 1. Vv.Aa. 2328 reales de vellón Goya y los orígenes de la Colección Banco de España, Madrid, Banco de España, 2021.