Wealth and Benefits of the Spanish Monarchy under Charles III
Historical Context
Wealth and Benefits of the Spanish Monarchy under Charles III, painted in 1762 and now in the National Gallery of Art, is a study for the ceiling of the Throne Room at the Royal Palace of Madrid — Tiepolo's last and most ambitious commission. The elaborate allegorical program celebrates the Bourbon dynasty's rule over Spain and its global empire. Tiepolo spent his final years (1762-1770) in Madrid working on these vast ceilings, creating some of the most magnificent decorative paintings in European art. The commission represented the ultimate recognition of his status as Europe's greatest living painter, though he faced growing competition from the Neoclassical style championed by Anton Raphael Mengs at the Spanish court.
Technical Analysis
The sketch captures the vast, spiraling ceiling composition in miniature, with figures and allegories arranged around a central celestial void. Tiepolo's luminous palette of golds, blues, and pinks creates an effect of overwhelming celestial splendor.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the vast spiraling ceiling composition captured in this study for the Throne Room of the Royal Palace of Madrid — Tiepolo's last and most ambitious commission.
- ◆Look at the figures and allegories arranged around a central celestial void, with the luminous palette of golds, blues, and pinks creating overwhelming celestial splendor.
- ◆Observe the allegorical program celebrating the Bourbon monarchy under Charles III, painted during Tiepolo's final years in Spain.
Provenance
Possibly by inheritance from the artist to a niece who married Pagliano, perhaps the painter Eleuterio Pagliano [1826-1903]; possibly purchased in Venice by Edward Cheney [1803-1884],[1] London, after 1860 at Badger Hall, Shropshire;[2] possibly by inheritance to his brother-in-law, Colonel Alfred Capel-Cure [1826-1896]; by inheritance to his nephew, Francis Capel-Cure [1854-1933], Badger Hall, Shropshire.[3] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[4] purchased 26 June 1935 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1943 to NGA. [1] Eduard Sack, _Giambattista und Domenico Tiepolo. Ihr Leben und Ihre Werke_, Hamburg, 1910: 223, gives this information from Francis Capel-Cure, who had inherited Cheney's collection. Sack gives only Pagliano's last name. While no documentation has been located, this account appears to be corroborated by the stipulations of Giandomenico Tiepolo's will of 1795, published by G. M. Urbani de Gheltof, _Tiepolo e la sua famiglia. Note e documenti inediti_, Venice, 1879: 70-75. This document established a fideicommissum, including "modelli" and "quadri," that was to pass to Francesco Antonio Tiepolo, son of Giambattista's brother, and thereafter to Francesco Antonio's children. If the paintings did pass to Francesco Antonio's children, one of them would have been the niece (or more properly grandniece) of Giambattista, said by Capel-Cure to have married Pagliano. Urbani de Gheltof 1879, 38, 97, recounts, however, that the drawings and sketches from Giandomenico's collection (but perhaps only some of them) passed to various heirs after the death of Giandomenico's wife and brother, and were eventually sold by the dealer Luigi Rizzoli of Padua to a rich Frenchman who still owned them in 1879. [2] Gustav Waagen, _Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain_, London, 1857: 173, noted that Cheney had a collection of nineteen sketches for ceilings executed for churches in Venice, and 171, that Cheney acquired most of his collection while resident in Venice. On Cheney see George Knox, _Catalogue of the Tiepolo Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum_, London, 1960: 4-5. [3] Sack 1910: 139, 223, lists Francis Capel-Cure as the owner. [4] See note 5. [5] The bill of sale (copy in NGA curatorial files) was for seven paintings and a number of decorative art objects; the provenance is given as "From the Collection of Sig. Paliano, husband of Tiepolo's niece. From the Capel Cure Family, Badger Hall, England." See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2471.
