A Jacobite Gazetteer - Spain

Madrid - Patrimonio Nacional


The Patrimonio Nacional is the Spanish state collection of royal residences and their contents.

Among the paintings in the collection is one by Giuseppe Duprà of a young Charles Emanuel, Duke of Savoy (later King Charles IV).1 Charles is shown standing in a powdered wig. He wears a red coat with large green cuffs, green breast panels, and a green waistcoat; the cuffs, breast-panels, and waistcoat are trimmed with gold brocade. Around his neck he wears a white neckerchief. From his shoulders hangs a light cape. In his right hand he grasps the barrel of a gun. His left hand rests on his hip.

The painting is a copy of a work by Giuseppe's older brother Domenico Duprà which hangs in the Appartamento di Madama Felicita in the Palazzo Reale in Turin; it varies in a number of details of the wig, the clothing, and the placement of the left arm. Presumably the Madrid portrait was sent by Charles' mother Infanta Maria Antonia of Spain as a gift to her brother King Charles III of Spain.

King Charles IV
Charles IV, when Duke of Savoy, by Duprà

Notes

1 Jesus Urrea Fernandez, La Pintura Italiana del Diglo XVIII en España (Valladolid: Departamento de Historia del Arte, 1977), 426.. Giuseppe Duprà was born in Turin in 1703 and died in 1784. He painted numerous portraits for the Savoy family.

Image 1 (Charles IV, when Duke of Savoy, by Duprà): Urrea Fernandez, lamina CLVIII.


This page is maintained by Noel S. McFerran (noel.mcferran@rogers.com) and was last updated July 31, 2010.
© Noel S. McFerran 2010.