María Ana de Pontejos y Sandoval, Marchioness of Pontejos

The portrait of the Marquise de Pontejos originated about 1786, painted by Francisco de Goya. The oil painting shows a young Spanish nobleman as a shepherdess in life size with a pug.

The Marquesa

Doña María Ana de Pontejos y Sandoval, marquesa de Pontejos, born in 1762 and died on July 18, 1834, was a patron of the artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes. In 1786, at the age of twenty-four, she married the brother of the Conde de Floridablanca, a minister at the court of Charles III. of Spain; Maria Ana's husband was at the time of their marriage, Ambassador of Spain in Portugal. The portrait she gave shortly after her wedding in order.

The Picture

The painting shows the young woman living large in the context of a landscaped park, decked out with a tight dress with rose appliqués, which not only emphasizes the figure, but modeled on slim. The skirt is gathered complicated and leaves behind the gauzy petticoat guess the legs of the Marquesa. In her hand she holds a pink carnation, as an emblem of love in the 18th century popular and also the symbol for a bride. The mask-like acting face is framed by an elaborately -looking hairstyle, which is crowned with a sun hat, whose feathers are lost in the clouds. The middle ground is, the dress, held contrasting dark and disappears in a delicate scale forest landscape and a bright sky.

The panel as a shepherdess was a fashion of the rococo, particularly cared for example of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France; the hairstyle of the Marquesa, her sun hat and flowered dress seem inspired by the French court. The characteristic of Goya mastery of different styles of painting, as here, the fleeting brushwork in the background, but also the very careful preparation of the figure in glazes, remember in this picture to the English portrait painting of Thomas Gainsborough.

The Pug

The immobility of the Marquesa with the effect of a tapestry experiences a contrast by the Mopshündchen wearing a pink neck bow with bells and toward the viewer is running. It is chosen and accurately detected, the lights are placed randomly.

Since the 17th century the pug at the princely courts with a preference for chinoiserie had become increasingly a popular Lap Dog, " a luxury being, not a farm dog, but a courtly dog ". In the 18th century it was, especially in France, as a fashion dog in vogue. Numerous portraits of noble ladies and high nobles throughout Europe, for example, the portrait of Anna Amalia, as a duplicate in the Weimar library and Wittumspalais, show the animal as an accessory.

In portraits such as that of the Marquesa de Pontejos the artist worked with a background window dressing and a dress on a stand, the conventionally designed face was inserted. The pug shows " add-on " in form and moving, however, the study of animal by nature.

Classification

Since 1786 Goya was a court painter as a first for the Spanish king Charles III. , Then for Charles IV of Spain operates. The portrait was commissioned; contact between the model and the painter did not exist. In the colors, the gradation of the image planes and the soft treatment of the background there is a certain resemblance to the tapestries, including El Pelele, Goya also designed for the Spanish court. Comparable distances designed as the portrait of the Marchesa, for example, the family portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Osuna and their children in 1789 ( Prado, Madrid).