Allegory of Galicia

This work was one of a series of ten allegories of the main dominions of Spain (including one of America) painted by Paret for the interior decoration of the House of the Council of the Five Greater Guilds, located on Calle Atocha in Madrid, in what is currently Jacinto Benavente Square. They were also part of the ephemeral decoration of the building’s façade, created by Paret on the occasion of the festivities organised in September 1789. These were held in honour of the oath of the Prince of Asturias on the 23rd of that month and the proclamation of Charles IV and Queen Maria Luisa of Parma which took place the previous year, in December 1788. The Allegory of Galicia, which was brought to light in 2017, is of great importance given the scarcity of known paintings by Paret, and because until that date, only two of the series had been located, namely The Allegory of Castile and The Allegory of León (private collection).

The Allegory of Galicia is personified by a young woman seated in a palatial interior before a large green curtain embroidered with gold thread. This curtain hangs on a column, to the left of which hangs a metal shield with the red cross of Saint James, emblem of the eponymous Order referring to James the Great, the evangelizer of the northern Iberian Peninsula and patron saint of Spain. The shield is surrounded by a frame and a floral garland tied with a ribbon, both painted in the style of a grisaille. The young woman is dressed in a white tunic and a cloak with hues of light blue, and she leans her left arm on the Galician escutcheon, which appears in a historical representation of the 16th and 17th centuries. The escutcheon, framed by a golden moulding and adorned at the bottom with laurel leaves and a shell, is an attribute of Saint James and bears a golden high relief of Christ’s chalice on a blue background, accompanied by several crosses of the same metal and a crown mounted with precious stones. At the feet of the young barefoot woman, other attributes of the saint are depicted: the Jacobean hat with the scallop shell and the pilgrim’s staff with its metal hook from which the water gourd hangs.

This work can be compared to the female allegories painted slightly earlier by Paret on the pendentives of the chapel of San Juan del Ramo in the church of Santa María de Viana in which a more uniform, clearer and denser composition as well as a greater spatial depth created through the perspective lines of the tiles covering the floor is clearly visible. The glow on the curtain suggests a certain space between the drapery itself and the figure and functions as a halo that highlights the young woman’s head. The concept of the figure with her body turned slightly to the right and her head turned in the opposite direction, as well as the gesture of her arms, may have been based on models by Carlo Maratti, namely that of the protagonist of the painting Rebecca at the Well (ca. 1696; Gallerie Barberini Corsini in Rome), known from a print by the Flemish artist Robert van Audenaerde. Its composition may have also inspired The Martyrdom of Saint Lucy. Finally, the young woman’s gentle and dreamy expression is emphasised by the soft modelling of the flesh tones and the lightness of the drapery, especially the cloak, which unveils the forms of the legs in the manner of wet drapery in antique sculpture. Paret achieved this impression by using much-diluted glazes with an ink wash effect, which contrast with the more-opaque paint of the objects depicted. This concept corresponds to the sentimental perception of classical sculpture at the time, which was considered exemplary in the definition of ideal beauty due to its qualities of noble simplicity and serene grandeur. (Maurer, G. in: Paret, Museo del Prado, 2022, pp. 246–8.)

Maurer, Gudrun, 'Luis Paret y Alcázar. Alegoría de Galicia' En:. Paret, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2022, p.246-248 nº 73