Francisco Bayeu

FRANCISCO BAYEU (Zaragoza, 1734 - Madrid, 1795).
"The vocation of Saint Isaiah. Sketch of pendentive for the dome of La Granja".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It presents Repainting and restorations on the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 35 x 33,5 cm; 44,5 x 33 cm (frame).
This painting is a preparatory sketch for one of the eight scenes painted "al fresco" that decorated the segments of the dome of the collegiate church of San Ildefonso del Real Sitio de La Granja consecrated to the Holy Trinity. This piece reproduces an image similar to that of the sketch in the Museo del Prado collection, with the figure of God enthroned in the upper area, and Isaiah with the angel in the lower area. It is true that, in this case, the ember that holds the angel is not appreciated, but simply the gesture of the body. In the pendentives of the Collegiate Church, Bayeu painted the evangelists and in the dome themes related to the Holy Trinity. In the 1771 Court meeting at the Royal Site of Aranjuez, the painters appeared with their sketches before the king for his approval. In the spring and summer of that year Francisco Bayeu executed the frescoes to the entire satisfaction of the chapter of the Collegiate Church, patron of the project. A fire in 1918 and the ravages of the Civil War seriously damaged the building, which had to be demolished and rebuilt. Of Bayeu's work on the dome, however, there is evidence thanks to the presentation sketches. Sketches that his widow inherited and part of which were bought by Leorardo Chopinot and in 1843 Queen Isabel II acquired them, together with the sketches of the evangelists of the pendentives, for the Prado Museum. The sketches preserved in the Prado Museum are: Creation of Adam Adam and Eve being reconvened for their sin with an inscribed no. 2, Abraham and the three angels with no. 3, and Vocation of Isaiah, with no. 4. In the Hispanic Society of New York the sketch of the Transfiguration is conserved with nº 76 and in a private collection in Madrid the sketches of The Baptism of Christ and Saint John the Evangelist.
Francisco Bayeu began his training in his native Zaragoza, attending the workshop of Juan Andrés Merklein, a painter of Bohemian origin, and the drawing classes of José Luzán Martínez. Already in 1756 he achieved the Extraordinary Prize of the Academy of San Fernando, which earned him a scholarship in 1758 to study for two years at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. However, Bayeu will leave the academy only two months later, because of his disagreements with one of the professors, Antonio González Velázquez. He then returns to Zaragoza and his economic situation becomes complicated, because the death of his parents will force him to take care of his family. He then began his pictorial career, carrying out commissions for churches and convents in the city. During these years, in 1759, he married Sebastiana Merklein, the daughter of his teacher. During these years he developed a language of youth, marked by the influence of Lucas Jordan and Corrado Giaquinto. However, in 1762 Anton Raphael Mengs, the leading court painter, visited Saragossa and asked him to work with him on the decoration of the new Royal Palace. Thanks to the protection of Mengs, Bayeu carried out several decorative commissions for the Royal Sites, thus establishing himself as one of the most outstanding painters of the time. Among these first works for the court, the fresco decoration of the vaults of the dining room of the queen's room ("The Surrender of Granada") and of the antechamber of the princes of Asturias ("The Fall of the Giants") are worth mentioning. In these works his baroque training is still evident, but elements of his mature language can already be glimpsed, such as the elegance in the positions, the meticulousness, the neoclassical lighting effects and the perfect anatomical study. Already in the 1760s his neoclassical aesthetic appears fully formed, marked by a clean and precise drawing and a palette that plays with the contrast of reds and yellows on an intonation based on blues and grays, as we can see in "Hercules on Olympus" (conversation room of the princes of Asturias in the Royal Palace), "Apollo remunerating the Arts" (El Pardo) or in "Providence presiding over the virtues and faculties of man" (room next to the gala dining room of the Royal Palace). Within his religious production of these years, it is worth mentioning the eleven fresco scenes illustrating lives and miracles of Toledo saints in the cathedral of Toledo, works completely indebted to Mengs. After Mengs' departure to Rome in 1777, the Aragonese painter took on all the duties left by Mengs as first painter, without, however, obtaining such an appointment. These tasks included the design of cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Factory, where he supervised the work of Goya, his brother-in-law since 1773. In 1785, he was commissioned by Charles III to restore the paintings in the royal collections. In 1786 he was appointed director of the Academy of San Fernando. Influenced by the painting of Corrado Giaquinto and González Vázquez, Bayeu's first stage was one of the most outstanding exponents of Spanish late Baroque painting. Later he would become the most faithful follower of Mengs, assimilating the neoclassical principles.