Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga
Artist Francisco Goya
Year 1787–88
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 127 cm × 101.6 cm (50 in × 40.0 in)
Location Metropolitan Museum of Art

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga is a portrait painting by Francisco Goya.[1] It is also known as Goya's Red Boy.[2]

History

Vicente Joaquin Osorio de Moscoso y Guzmán Fernández de Córdoba (1756–1816), Count of Altamira, had hired Goya for several family portraits. Altamira held many titles and was also a director of the Banco de San Carlos.[3] In 1786, after painting several portraits of the court, Goya was nominated painter to Charles III.[4] This painting, from 1787–88, is of his youngest son, Manuel, who was born in April 1784 and died at age eight on June 12, 1792.[5]

Description

Manuel is dressed in a red costume. He holds a string attached to his pet magpie, who is holding a calling card of the painter. On his left is a cage of finches. Three cats are intently watching the magpie on his right.[1]

Analysis

The pets in this portrait have been analyzed in many different ways. The caged birds may symbolize the soul, the cats may be an evil force.[1] For example, Goya shows a cat among the creatures in The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, part of The Caprices.[6]

Legacy

In 1926, Kathryn Bache Miller fell in love with this painting while at the Paris art gallery of Joseph Duveen. Her father, Jules Bache, then purchased it for $275,000.[7] The painting was hung prominently in her living room. Her interior decorator, Billy Baldwin, described her attachment to it as if it were a living being.[2] Her father bequeathed the painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it was allowed to be shown periodically in Miller's apartment until she died in 1979.[8]

From April 22 to August 3, 2014, the museum reunited Manuel with his parents in the exhibit Goya and the Altamira Family.[9] The exhibit also included portraits of his two brothers and his sister.[10]

References

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.