Communication with the purpose of culturally promoting artists included in the Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Collection, works protected by intellectual property rights. Their total or partial reproduction or processing by any means, or their transmission or cession in any form is forbidden without the authorisation of the holder of the rights to the works.
LA ADORACIÓN DEL CORDERO MÍSTICO POR LOS VEINTICUATRO ANCIANOS DEL APOCALIPSIS
TECHNICAL DATA
Author: Mariano Salvador Maella (Valencia, 1739 – Madrid, 1819)
Title: The worship of the Mystic Lamb by the twenty-four elders of Revelation
Year: 2020
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 52 x 41,5 cm
This canvas is the first of the two known sketches that Maella made for the fresco decoration of the bishop’s room in the Chapel of the Royal Palace in Madrid under the direction of Anton Raphael Mengs.
In it the final composition is completely resolved, appropriate to the ellipsoidal shape of the vault. In the lower part, a young angel, holding a trumpet in his right hand, indicates with his left hand the central group and thus introduces the viewer to the main motif. He is accompanied by two child angels, who hold a tablet or tombstone that in the fresco contains the Latin inscription taken from the Apocalypse (5, 12: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power, wealth, wisdom…”). The elders, dressed in white robes alluding to purity, kneel on the clouds before the Mystical Lamb. In the main group – in the center of the composition – is the Lamb reclining on the Book of the Seven Seals, which has been placed on a golden cloth. Below is the tetramorph. In the upper part, festooned with clouds, several angels can be seen, among which one stands out, a turiferous one, which both in the second sketch and in the fresco is represented in another position, displaced to the right and projected towards the Lamb.
The spirited execution, the synthetic pictorial execution and the taste for foreshortening reveal the influence of Italian painting in this work, acquired by the Foundation from Ansorena in the auction of November 4, 2020 (lot 25).