The title of this exhibition of painting, though long, is fortunate. The portraits that we both look at us as we look to them. The portraits seem to follow us around the room with their eyes and, while we report themselves, seem to wonder about our tastes and sensibilities.
The Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo Assis Chautebriand is a nonprofit institution founded in 1947 by the journalist Chautebriand Assis (1892-1968) with the help of art critic, art dealer and antique Italian Pietro Maria Bardi (1900 - 1999), director of the museum until 1990. They gathered the largest collection of European art from Latin America, especially of Italian painting and French Impressionist paintings particularly. The collection was formed by the most renowned shopping galleries of European and American art, especially between 1947 and 1954, privately funded by donors and patrons transactions in exchange for favors and with methods of persuasion often criticized. Later their funds were nourished solely by donations. It is a very educational museum since 1968 is based on the Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo in a unique building designed by Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992). 1
The Museum has, for the purposes of our concern, a small but select collection of English art which include works by Velazquez, (" Portrait of the Count Duke of Olivares " acquired in 1948 by 65,000 $, contained in the exhibition), El Greco, Zurbarán, Carreño, Goya and Picasso. Goya Museum has four categories, which may be exposed in Madrid, I think for the first time and are more interesting. The "Portrait Juan Antonio Llorente," (1813) author of "Critical History of the English Inquisition" and friend of the painter, the " Portrait of Cardinal Luis Maria de Borbon y Villabriga " (1783), which There is a replica of the Prado Museum, the "Portrait of Ferdinand VII " (1805-1808) and the present one, the " Portrait of the Countess of Casa Flores " (1790-1797) 2.
Portrait of Countess Flores House 1790-1797. Oil on canvas 112 x 79 cm.
acknowledge that he had never seen, even in reproduction, this " Portrait of the Countess of Casa Flores" (is not it Florez house?) And I was impressed to the point of having gone several times to contemplate. Maria Rafaela Gutierrez de Teran, as it was called the sitter, was the wife of the second Earl of Casa Flores, Ambassador of Spain in Vienna and St. Petersburg. In the catalog of this exhibition tells us that this character was associated with an episode of the Portuguese presence in South America and Brazil. Seems to have had some role in a loan granted the military plaza in Montevideo to a Portuguese officer who represented the Crown and who, with the money, could pay the troops lusas settled in the city which had threatened to return to the metropolis. As I know well the history of Brazil I can not remove or put anything else into account.
But most important is not the historical context but what the image portrayed dela transmitted to the viewer. Let us look first at the white dress worn by the aristocratic lady. Occupies considerable space, and parce canvas spread before us as we are looking down. White dress contrasts with the face, earnest and homely, perhaps a kinda sad, the countess. I've always wondered why women in the paintings of Goya never smiles, except perhaps the "Majas" that seem to run a slight knowing smile to his fans. An interpretation that does not convince me, they want to convey a sense of independence from the man of worth for themselves. Rose Marie & Rainer Hagen 3, call it "martial," a term that I find inappropriate for a woman. The picture without detracting from its documentary function, the portrait of the represented, heralds in a time still early in his art, a creative freedom by treating the shape and color, Goya will demonstrate that in later years. Only so, and the rest of the pictures, some admirable, it is worth, friends that you get to the exhibition before Christmas comes.
© Manuel Martínez Bargueño
December, 2009 (last update January 2010)
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NOTES 1. This information is obtained from the Internet www.itaucultural.org.br
2. See PM. Bardi "English artists at the Museum of Sao Paulo in Brazilian Culture Magazine, editada por la Embajada de Brasil en España, número 44, junio de 1977, págs. 19 a33 (disponible en Internet).
3 . Goya. Rose Marie & Rainer Hagen. Iberdrola. Tachen. El País 2007, p.44
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