Studio of Antonio Joli

The canvas is relined. The paint surface is secure with craquelure throughout, retaining much of its original impasto under a dirty old varnish. There is a 5 cm diagonal surface scratch on the right edge. The varnish impedes thorough inspection under UV light but minor scattered retouchings do fluoresce. Offered in a wood and plaster gilt frame in fair condition.
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The palace at Aranjuez was the favourite royal residence of King Ferdinand VI of Spain and his wife Mária Bárbara of Braganza. Lying 47 km. to the south of Madrid it had been begun under Philip II in 1574 to designs by Juan de Herrera. In 1715 Philip V extended the palace but is was partly destroyed by fire soon after in 1748, allowing the new King Ferdinand to rebuild much of it, to designs by Giacomo Bonavía.

Each year Ferdinand's court spent the period between Easter and St. John's day at Aranjuez, where they were entertained by, amongst others, the great castrato Carlo Broschi 'Farinelli' (1702-82). Indeed it was Farinelli who, on the death of the Bolognese painter Giacomo Pavia in 1749, invited Antonio Joli to the Spanish court in order to paint theatrical scenery at Aranjuez and in the Teatro del Buen Retiro in Madrid. Joli remained in Spain until 1754 but continued to work for the Spanish Crown from Italy, completing, for example, two large canvases depicting The Embarkation of Charles III from Naples in 1759.¹

Three autograph versions of this view exist: one in the Palazzo Reale, Naples,² another sold London, Christie's, 7 July 1989, lot 110, and another sold Madrid, Sotheby's, 20 February 1992, lot 13.

1. J. Urrea Fernandez, La Pintura Italiana del Siglo XVIII en España, 1977, p. 155, reproduced plate XXXVI).
2. Idem, p. 156.