SPAIN

When the French-born Philip V acceded to the throne of Spain in 1700, he brought with him many French and Italian artists. Even in 1751, it was a Frenchman, Louis Michel van Loo (1701-1771) who became the first director of the new Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. One of few Spanish artists to work at court was Miguel Jacinto Meléndez (1679–1734) who became the leading portraitist, although he too had competition from the French Michel-Ange Houasse from 1715. Houasse’s disciple, Antonio González Ruiz, took himself off to Paris, no doubt realising this was the best way to gain recognition at home. José del Castillo (1737-1793), who studied in Rome with Corranto Giaquinto, shifted between Rococo and Baroque to which he reverted for religious commissions. Another important source of patronage for Castillo and others such as Francisco Bayeu y Subias (1734–1795) and Mariano Salvador Maella (1739–1819) was the royal tapestry factory under the directorship of the Austrian Anton Raphael Mengs. Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was the most important Spanish artist of the century and arguably of all time. Portraitist and court painter to the Spanish Crown, he worked in several media and genres. Some of his strangest drawings are those representing his first ideas for the Caprichos, collected in two albums from 1796 and 1797.