Portrait of Cardinal Francisco Javier Gardoqui - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Portrait of Cardinal Francisco Javier Gardoqui

Madrazo, José de

Santander, 22/04/1781-Madrid, 08/05/1859

Oil on canvas

249.5 x 172 cm

Madrazo Ft (bottom left hand corner)

1816

19st century. First quarter

69/165

Contributed by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia in 1913

Attired in the red cardinal robes, Francisco Javier Gardoqui (1747-1820) stands in front of a large window looking on to the Vatican. In March 1816, the year in which the work was painted, Pius VII had proclaimed this sixty-eight year old ecclesiastic from Bilbao (who was ill and had retired to the Abbey of Monticelli) a cardinal, in recognition of his extraordinary fidelity during the difficult times of the Napoleonic invasion of Rome. The distinction was also a reward for his brilliant career and the outstanding role he and his family had played spreading the Catholic faith in America, not to mention his loyal assistance on legal issues, in which Gardoqui was considered an expert.

When the Town Hall of Bilbao decided to commission a large portrait of the illustrious clergyman, immediately after his proclamation, to be presented during the celebrations held in his homeland, it turned to José de Madrazo, a painter from Santander who was living at the time in Rome, near the cardinal, and was the most renowned Spanish portraitist in the Eternal City. Madrazo, who had been a direct disciple of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) in Paris, had also shared with Gardoqui the Napoleonic prisons in Rome and was perhaps as a result able to capture the distant and yet pragmatic personality of the old priest. This painting, conceived as a great court portrait, eventually became the official picture of Gardoqui in his highest dignity. Madrazo turned to the pictorial tradition of such portraits, that included formulas established since the Baroque which he adapted to a totally Neoclassical language, concentrating all interest on the character himself and his contained gesture. The Prado Museum keeps several preparatory drawings for this picture, including a delicate bust portrait of Gardoqui in pastels made by Madrazo from life as a model for this work.

Considered by critics to be one of the most important portraits in José de Madrazo¿s Roman period, the painting is truly a landmark in Spanish Neoclassical portraiture. (Carlos G. Navarro)

Selected bibliography

  • III Congreso de Estudios Vascos : catálogo exposición de arte. Guernica, Excelentísima DIputación de Vizcaya, 1922. p. 2, n° cat. 17.
  • Plasencia, Antonio. Catálogo de las obras de pintura y escultura del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Imprenta Provincial, 1932. p. 24, n° cat. 61. (Con el título Retrato del cardenal Gardoqui, y atribuido a José de Madrazo)
  • Lasterra, Crisanto de. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : catálogo descriptivo : sección de arte antiguo. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1969. p. 74, n° cat. 165. (Con el título Retrato del cardenal Gardoqui, y atribuido a MADRAZO Y AGUDO, José).
  • Ossorio y Bernard, Manuel. Galería biográfica de artistas españoles del siglo XIX. Madrid, Giner, 1975. p. 399.
  • Díez, José Luis. "El Retrato del Cardenal Gardoqui de Jose de Madrazo, 1781-1859", Urtekaria 1991 : asterlanak, albistak = Anuario 1991 : estudios, crónicas. 1992. pp. 7-13.
  • Artola Renedo, Andoni. "El cardenal Francisco Antonio Gardoqui, 1747-1820 : las claves de una carrera en la Iglesia Católica", Revista Bidebarrieta, n° 21. 2010. p. 61.
  • José de Madrazo, 1781-1859 [Cat. exp.]. Santander, Fundación Marcelino Botín, 1998. pp. 268-271. N° cat. 16
  • De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Caja Duero, 2006. p. 16.
  • El mundo de los Madrazo : colección de la Comunidad de Madrid [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, Consejería de Cultura y Deportes, 2007. p. 308.
  • De Goya a Gauguin : el siglo XIX en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 114-117, n° cat. 8.
  • Cava Mesa, María Jesús. Un paseo por la historia de Bilbao. Bilbao, Universidad de Deusto, 2008. p. 77, il.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 93, n° cat. 65.
  • Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 93, n° cat. 65.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 93.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 93.