Attributed to Francisco Bayeu, "Presentation of the Infante Carlos Clemente, son of Carlos IV and María Luisa de Parma"

Oil on canvas, attached attribution report by José Manuel Arnáiz, and, according to the author, made around 1722, in the painting the Infante Carlos Clemente is represented in the foreground before the two emispheres symbol of imperial power, the scepter and the lion. Francisco Bayeu (Zaragoza, 1734-Madrid, 1795) began his career in Zaragoza in the workshop of the Bohemian painter Juan Andrés Merklein and in the drawing classes of José Luzán Martínez. Bayeu then returned to his hometown, where he carried out several commissions for churches and convents, including the Aula Dei Charterhouse. Anton Raphael Mengs claimed him in 1762 to help him decorate the New Palace. Thanks to the interventions of Mengs, the Aragonese collaborated in numerous decorative undertakings for the royal sites, which earned him the appointment of chamber painter in 1767. He worked mainly as a fresco painter, and in 1768 he made the one in the vault of the conversation room of the princes of Asturias room decorated with the theme Hercules on Olympus. Bayeu combined his duties at court with different commissions offered by the Zaragoza authorities. He was then entrusted with the decoration of the royal chapel in the palace of Aranjuez. After the departure of Mengs in 1777 to Rome, Francisco Bayeu assumed all the obligations that had been abandoned by the first painter. Bayeu was also responsible for the artistic tasks of the Santa Bárbara Tapestry Factory. He made cardboard models that his brother made and supervised the work of Goya, his brother-in-law since 1773. In 1785, Carlos III entrusted Bayeu and Maella with the restoration of the paintings in the royal collections. The painter, who had become the head of a large family after the death of his father, was forced to work tirelessly, an effort that broke his health. When he fell ill in 1786, Goya replaced him at the San Fernando Academy, which Bayeu directed as director of the painting from 1788. The commissions do not stop, the princes of Asturias entrust Bayeu with the decoration of the vault of the dining room in the palace of El Pardo. To restore his health he returned to Zaragoza, until he was called back to Aranjuez in 1791. There he carried out the painting for the oratory of the Royal Palace and the vault of the king's bedroom, which will be his last work, before he died in 1795. Influenced by the painting of Giaquinto and González Velázquez - he had made the dome in 1753 of the cathedral of Zaragoza according to the sketches of the Neapolitan-, Bayeu is in the first stage of his artistic production one of the most outstanding exponents of Spanish late-baroque painting. With the coming of Mengs, Bayeu became his most faithful follower assimilating neoclassical principles. The figures appear in contained postures, the colors are local and their way of lighting surpasses the strong contrasts of the chiaroscuro of their first stage. Bayeu unites the formal rigor of Mengs with the technique and pictorial resources of Giaquinto. While his finished works are cool and academic, his sketches reveal his late-baroque streak, where he works with fast, flowing touches and rich, luscious colors. Measurements: 41.5 x 56 cm Bayeu became his most faithful follower assimilating the neoclassical principles. The figures appear in contained postures, the colors are local and their way of lighting surpasses the strong contrasts of the chiaroscuro of their first stage. Bayeu unites the formal rigor of Mengs with the technique and pictorial resources of Giaquinto. While his finished works are cool and academic, his sketches reveal his late-baroque streak, where he works with fast, flowing touches and rich, luscious colors. Measurements: 41.5 x 56 cm Bayeu became his most faithful follower assimilating the neoclassical principles. The figures appear in contained postures, the colors are local and their way of lighting surpasses the strong contrasts of the chiaroscuro of their first stage. Bayeu unites the formal rigor of Mengs with the technique and pictorial resources of Giaquinto. While his finished works are cold and academic, his sketches reveal his late-baroque streak, where he works with fast, flowing touches and rich, luscious colors. Measurements: 41.5 x 56 cm While his finished works are cool and academic, his sketches reveal his late-baroque streak, where he works with fast, flowing touches and rich, luscious colors. Measurements: 41.5 x 56 cm While his finished works are cool and academic, his sketches reveal his late-baroque streak, where he works with fast, flowing touches and rich, luscious colors. Measurements: 41.5 x 56 cm