Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009592Portrait of Infante Don Luis de Borbon
Also known as: Infante Don Luis de Borbón
About the Artwork
As a younger child of King Philip V of Spain, Don Luis received important religious posts, including Archbishop of Toledo and Seville. However, his philandering led to losing these titles and banishment from the court, while he became a crucial avant-garde art patron, especially of Goya. The encrustations of medals and cacophonous fabrics speak to Mengs's experiments in representing status, privilege, and royal honors in the age of Enlightenment, when rational skepticism began to confront absolutist, hereditary power.
Provenance
Maria Luisa, Duquesa de San Fernando, Madrid (youngest daughter of Don Luis, died 1847); Carlota Luisa, Duquesa de Sueca, Condesa da Chinchon, Boadilla del Monte (granddaughter of Don Luis, niece of Maria Luisa, died 1886); Adolfo Ruspoli, Duque de Sueca, Conde de Chinchon, Boadilla del Monte (son of Carlota Luisa, died, Paris, February 4, 1914; liquidation: Paris, February 7, 1914); Comte de Maubou, Paris; [Wildenstein & Co., New York]. Purchase, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Bequest, 1966.
Exhibition history
Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966). Painting in Spain in the Age of Enlightenment: Goya and His Contemporaries. Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields (organizer) (November 23, 1996-January 19, 1997).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Anton Raphael Mengs (German, 1728–1779)
- Date
- c. 1776
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 180.5 x 127 x 8 cm (71 1/16 x 50 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 152.7 x 100 cm (60 1/8 x 39 3/8 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Accession no.
- 1966.14
More by Anton Raphael Mengs in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009592
Powered by Art Trackers