Author: QAGOMA

Francisco de Goya’s portrait captures a small woman with a strong character — one can imagine her maintaining decisive control of her family’s fortunes. Her white shawl, ribbons and rose reveal a new softness and delicacy in vogue as fashions now took their lead from France.

‘For this image of the marchioness, Goya has avoided the conventional model of a stately and formal full-length portrait of a lady standing in the midst of her properties. Rather, this threequarter length portrait presents the sitter in an intimate light, seated on an austere, though elegant, chair with a gilt frame in the style of the reign of Charles IV. The refined elegance of her dress is reflective of the French-influenced styles then in fashion and includes elements that were typical feminine adornments at the time, such as the blue silk cockade she wears in her large powdered wig, her rose brooch, and the blue ribbon tied around her white shawl. The play of light on the shawl’s slightly transparent chiffon allows Goya — utilising the devices of Venetian painters like Titian — to highlight the marchioness’s delicate intelligent features and sensitive, reflexive facial expression.’ ¹

During the 1700’s the sublime gave way to the delightful, the dignified to the graceful, grandeur of size to the charm of elegance. Along with an increased regard for women — the expression of tenderness and feelings became more important.

Diamonds were by now mined in Brazil and the quantities imported had increased 10 times the amount as in the last years of Indian production. An early form of the brilliant cut had been invented — there was a whole new sparkle to the jewellery trade.

No more heavy gold settings or straight rows of gems — a new lightness permeated. Diamonds were now set in silver to best show off their whiteness — and as the settings became lighter, metal was relegated to a supporting role. These airy designs expressed the new naturalism — stones were set at varying angles rather than face on to the viewer — with the result of even more sparkle as the wearer moved.

Improvements in lighting became widespread and the wealthy now owned daytime and evening jewellery — diamonds became synonymous with glittering ballrooms and sparkling conversation across candelabra laden dinner tables.

Barbara Heath is a Brisbane-based jewellery designer

Endnote
¹ You can read more about María Antonia Gonzaga by Manuela Mena Marques in the illustrated exhibition catalogue Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado.

Know Brisbane through the Collection / Read more about the Australian Collection / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes

Specially curated for the Queensland Art Gallery by the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, ‘Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado’ is the largest and most significant international loan the Prado has ever undertaken, and the first exhibition from their collection to be shown in the Southern Hemisphere / Queensland Art Gallery / 21 July – 4 November 2012

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The poet, playwright and composer Tomás de Iriarte (1750–91) who appears to be around 35 in this portrait wears a hard stone cameo on his little finger — two centuries on from Clara Eugenia’s symbol of dynastic continuity this would have a different reading. People are tired now of the bizarre flourishes of the Rococo Period which have come to represent everything excessive about the ancient regime and are drawn to the clarity of Classical Antiquity after the excavations of Pompei in the mid 1700’s and the subsequent illustrations in literature describing travel to classical sites. After all, the values of the enlightenment were partly drawn from Roman History — virtue, tolerance, freedom equality and brotherhood. The classical heroes often depicted in these carved gems embodied these ideals.

Tomás de Iriarte, the moralist, satirist and the intellectual wears an emblem of Neo-Classicism and declares a love of humanist ideals here on his little finger, the lovers finger.

In this painting ‘he sports a greyish wig with a ponytail that can be seen in shadow, falling down his back, and wears a navy blue coat and red waistcoat in which he hides his right hand as was fashionable at the time. Both garments are trimmed with a palmate motif in gold, and his shirt is adorned with lace ruffles on the front and at the wrists. This is the uniform corresponding to his post as the archivist of the Supreme Council of War, a position he held from 1776. In the lower left-hand corner is a table on which an inkwell with two pens, a folded sheet of paper and a book are placed, attributes that allude to his vocation as a translator, poet and playwright. His great passion for music is indicated by the book he holds upright with his left hand, the title of which is legible on the spine: La música, poema (Music, a poem), a didactic work in verse Iriarte published in 1779 and which led to immediate international recognition. Likewise, the ring on his pinkie finger bearing a cameo may possibly refer to his nickname, Camafeo (‘cameo’) with which his friend the Marquis of Manca, Don Manuel Delitala, christened him, owing to a gesture that Iriarte made when he played the violin.’ ¹

Barbara Heath is a Brisbane-based jewellery designer

Endnote
¹ You can read more about Tomás de Iriarte by Virginia Albarrán Martín in the exhibition catalogue Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado.

Know Brisbane through the Collection / Read more about the Australian Collection / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes

Specially curated for the Queensland Art Gallery by the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, ‘Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado’ is the largest and most significant international loan the Prado has ever undertaken, and the first exhibition from their collection to be shown in the Southern Hemisphere / Queensland Art Gallery / 21 July – 4 November 2012

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‘Margarita was born on 12 July 1651, the daughter of Philip IV and Mariana of Austria. On 12 December 1666, she married Emperor ^Leopold of Austria and died seven years later in Vienna. The fact that the princess is wearing mourning dress in this painting helps date it between September 1665 — when her father died — and her wedding in December 1666. Those dates suggest that the portrait was made in order to keep a memento in Madrid that would represent the infanta as she appeared shortly before she left permanently for Vienna.’ ¹

Margarita would travel shortly after this portrait was painted to marry — as stipulated by her father — to ensure the succession of the Spanish throne would pass to her descendants. Despite the age difference they had a happy marriage and shared an interest in the theatre and music — they had four children, however Margarita died at 21.

Here she wears jet bracelets, rings and large earrings or hair ornaments of black ribbon — her siblings in similar sober attire in the background.

Margarita effectively became Queen of Germany and she would have had a lavish collection of jewellery as part of her dowry. One enormous diamond of 36cts was auctioned at Christies in 2008. The blue diamond sold for 24.3 million, the highest price paid for a diamond at auction. Purchased by London jeweller Laurence Graff who raised eyebrows when he re-cut the gem losing 4.45 cts and indeterminable historical significance, although it resulted in a diamond of technically higher calibre.

Barbara Heath is a Brisbane-based jewellery designer

Endnote
¹ You can read more about Empress Margarita of Austria by Javier Portús in the illustrated exhibition catalogue Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado.

Know Brisbane through the Collection / Read more about the Australian Collection / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes

Specially curated for the Queensland Art Gallery by the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, ‘Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado’ is the largest and most significant international loan the Prado has ever undertaken, and the first exhibition from their collection to be shown in the Southern Hemisphere / Queensland Art Gallery / 21 July – 4 November 2012

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Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566–1633), Philip II’s elder daughter and one of the most important women in the Spanish dynasty can be seen here dressed in her stiff bodice dripping with jewels from her mother and her stepmother. She wears a formal dress made of white silk, heavily embroidered with gold thread; the high collar with its delicate lace trim and the feathered headdress each correspond to Spanish fashion in the mid to late 1580s.

Isabella Clara Eugenia represents the wealth of the Spanish Court, which by the mid 16th Century, enriched by the New World and its gold and emeralds, was leading Europe into its last great epoch of formal ostentatious display in which the art of jewellery played such an important role.

There are three important aspects to the context of this painting: the artistic and intellectual revolutions of the Renaissance; the techniques of rendering a more natural reality applied as much to jewellery as other art forms; and, a time of discovery on a global scale.

Christopher Columbus reached America in 1492, then Vasco de Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 to new lands and new riches. In the 1500’s the centuries old conduit for precious goods travelling from the east to the west — The Silk Road — was overthrown by these new sea routes to the gem rich countries of Ceylon, Burma and India, shifting the centres of trade in luxury goods from Venice to Seville and Lisbon.

There was enormous potential for jewellery with the new materials and new styles — but equally significant was the recent development of the printing press — this really was an information revolution enabling designs to be distributed throughout the goldsmiths workshops of Europe.

Isabella Clara Eugenia  uses her jewellery — in no subtle way — to display power and status — the sumptuous necklaces inherited from her mothers family re-enforce her matrilineal power base, while the hard stone cameo she holds in her right hand is a portrait of her father Philip II — presents the viewer with a strong sense of dynastic continuity.

Barbara Heath is a Brisbane-based jewellery designer

You can read more about The infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia by Leticia Ruiz Gómez in the richly illustrated exhibition catalogue Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado.

Know Brisbane through the Collection / Read more about the Australian Collection / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes

Specially curated for the Queensland Art Gallery by the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, ‘Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado’ is the largest and most significant international loan the Prado has ever undertaken, and the first exhibition from their collection to be shown in the Southern Hemisphere / Queensland Art Gallery / 21 July – 4 November 2012

#QAGOMA