Francisco Bayeu y Subías

FRANCISCO BAYEU (Zaragoza, 1734 - Madrid, 1795).
"Commendation of an infant".
Oil on canvas.
Unsigned.
Measurements: 72 x 46 cm, 80 x 54 cm (frame).

This is a pair of oil on canvas, made in the second half of the eighteenth century. Both works form a unitary set as much by format as by thematic and iconography, which indicates its conception as pendant or series destined to the same space.

The compositions present an allegorical scene of courtly and honorific character, identified with the theme of the Encomienda de un Infante. The figures are arranged in a celestial space, articulated by superimposed clouds, in which characters of classical and angelic inspiration are grouped. The scene is dominated by an ascending movement and a dynamic disposition of the bodies, reinforced by the undulating folds of the draperies and the use of diagonals.

The pictorial treatment responds fully to the academic and classicist style typical of Bayeu, with a careful brushstroke, firm drawing and a warm palette in which reds, blues and golden tones stand out. The figures show an ideal of serene and restrained beauty, far from baroque dramatism, and closer to the enlightened taste of the last third of the 18th century. The cut-out shape of the pictorial field suggests that they may have been conceived as decorative paintings for over doors, lunettes or palace spaces.

Francisco Bayeu was one of the key figures in Spanish painting during the reign of Charles III, closely linked to the Court, to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and to the great palace decorative programs. His work is part of the cultural climate of the Enlightenment, characterized by the exaltation of order, reason and the monarchy as a guarantor of social balance.

The theme of the encomienda granted to an infant alludes to the honorary systems of the Ancien Régime, in which members of the royal family were invested with dignities linked to military or noble orders, not so much for personal merits as for their dynastic position. These ceremonies and their artistic representations fulfilled a propagandistic function, reinforcing the legitimacy of Bourbon power and the sacralized character of the monarchy.

From a social point of view, these works reflect a society of the estates, in which honor, hierarchy and proximity to royal power were fundamental values. The allegorical and celestial iconography contributes to ennoble the event, elevating it from the political to the symbolic, in keeping with courtly taste and the role of art as an instrument of representation of power in enlightened Spain.