Lot 266: Alonso Miguel de Tovar , Higuera de la Sierra 1678 - 1758 Madrid Portrait of Doña Josefa de Benavides, Marquesa de Villena y Duquesa de Escalona (1662-1725), holding a small bunch of flowers and a fan oil on canvas

inscribed lower right: La Excelentísima Sra. Dª. Josepha de Venavides y lacerda. Marquesa d Villena Duquesa de Escalona, hija delos Ex.mos Señores Duques de Santistevan de el puerto Nazio en la Ziudad de Lima Reyno de el Peru, el a?de1662 murió en Pamplona.el de 1692 oil on canvas

measurements note 127 by 102 cm.; 50 by 40 1/4 in.

Seville, Museo de Bellas Artes, Miguel Alonso de Tovar, 2006, pp. 75-77, cat. no. 13.

E. Valdivieso, Pintura barocca sevillana, Seville 2003, p. 503;
F. Quiles, Alonso Miguel de Tovar, Seville 2005, p. 33.

The present work is a pendant to the portrait of the sitter's husband, Don Juan Manuel López Pacheco (1648-1725), 8th Duke of Escalona and 8th Marquis of Villena, found in a Private Collection, Cordoba, Spain (see fig. 1). Don Juan Manuel López Pacheco was an important member of the Court of Philipp V and, after founding the Real Academia Española in 1713, served as its first director.

This closely-observed portrait from 1725 is most probably a posthumous portrayal of the sitter. The inscription tells us that Doña Josefa died in 1692 so it is thus unlikely that Tovar would have executed such a fine work at the young age of 14. Like many of his portraits, the work stands out in its attention to detail and fine reproduction of the sitter's embroidered clothing.

Alonso Miguel de Tovar began his career as an artist painting religious subjects and was trained in this manner by Juan Antonio Ossorio in Seville. Stylistically, his religious works are heavily indebted to Murillo, and this can be seen in the Our Lady of Consolation with Saints Francis, James and a Clerical Donor of 1720 in Seville Cathedral. He was appointed court painter in 1729 when the Spanish court moved to Seville and it seems that, having later returned to Madrid with the court, he worked closely with Louis-Michel van Loo who was to have a profound effect on his portrait style.