Spanish school; circa 1820.

Spanish school; circa 1820.
"Portrait of Ferdinand VII.
Gouache on vellum.
Period bronze mace.
Size: 5,5 x 4 cm; 12,5 x 7,5 cm (frame).
Since the Renaissance, miniature portraits, framed in a circle or oval, were pieces for private contemplation. Considered as jewellery, in the 17th century they became pieces of personal adornment or a gift, when they were mounted as jewellery. They were executed in a wide variety of techniques, such as oil on copper, pewter or ivory, gouaches on parchment or cardboard and, from the 18th century, watercolour on ivory. This delicate art was gradually lost from the second half of the 19th century onwards, in parallel with the development of photography.
The most common type of work of this type in the 19th century were historicist representations, often set in the preceding century. However, the portrait we present here takes up the spirit of the eighteenth-century portrait-jewel and applies it to modern times, capturing the image of a real man of his time, no longer a Romantic-style ideal recreation.