print
- Museum number
- 1868,1114.388
- Description
-
Frontispiece for the 'Fiestas de la Santa Iglesia de Sevilla'; king Ferdinand III standing whole-length on a globe supported by a plinth, between medallions, surrounded by angels and scrolls with inscriptions; Hercules on the left and Julius Caesar holding the crown of Castille on the right; view of Seville between a figure of the river Guadalquivir and Neptune below. 1671
Etching
- Production date
- 1671
- Dimensions
-
Height: 440 millimetres
-
Width: 277 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Ferdinand III, king of Castile (1217-52) was canonised by Pope Clement X in 1671. The celebration of the event in Seville was described in the publication commissioned by Seville Cathedral from the poet Fernando de la Torre Farfan, 'Fiesta de la S. Iglesia metropolitana y patriarchal de Sevilla, al Nuevo culto de Señor Rey S. Fernando el tercero de Castillo y de Leo'n (Seville 1671. Complete copies can be found in the British Library 207 e 10 and 487.i.36). The ambition of the publication was unprecedented in Seville and richly illustrated with prints by many artists working there.
Matías de Arteaga y Alfaro was a prolific printmaker and numerically contributed the greatest number of prints for the publication. This print shows Giralda tower decorated with banners for the canonisation.
Xanthe Brooke (email Dec 2022): The standing figure on the right presently identified as Mars(?) should probably be identified as Julius Caesar, who was credited with building the walls around Seville. A Latin inscription on one of the former main gates to Seville the Puerta de Jerez (demolished in the 19thC) read in translation: “Hercules built me, Julius Caesar surrounded me with walls and high towers, and the saint King [Ferdinand III] regained me". The latter inscription is quoted in Adelaida Cintas del Bot 'Iconografia del Rey San Fernando en la pintura de Sevilla', Sevilla, 1991, p.73, a copy of which is in the British Library.
Lit.: A. Wunder, 'Murillo and the canonisation case of San Fernando, 1649-52', The Burlington Magazine, CLXIII, 2001, pp.670-75; R. Mulcahy, 'Celebrating sainthood, government, and Seville: the Fiestas for the canonization of King Ferdinand III', Hispanic Research Journal, XI, 2010, pp.393-414.; M.P. McDonald, 'Renaissance to Goya: Prints and drawings from Spain', London, 2012, pp.33, 160-61.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Fiestas de la Santa Iglesia de Sevilla
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,1114.388
