Martín Zapater y Clavería (12 November 1747,

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

- 1803, Zaragoza) was a wealthy Aragonese merchant, with an

enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

point of view. He is largely known for his close friendship with the artist

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish Romanticism, romantic painter and Printmaking, printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hi ...

. The letters they exchanged constitute one of the primary sources of knowledge about Goya's life.

Biography

He remained unmarried; spending much of his life in a house on the Calle del Coso, across from the . As a member of the growing bourgeoisie of the eighteenth century, he amassed a significant fortune from his land sales and leasing to the City of Zaragoza, other institutions, and the local nobility. In 1778, he was appointed for the city and, the following year, became a member of the Aragonese nobility himself, by order of King Charles IV. He was an initiator for many of the Enlightenment-related institutions in Aragon; being a co-founder of the

Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País Sociedad is a municipality in the Morazán department of El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on t ...

in 1776 and serving as their Treasurer from 1790 to 1800. He also participated in the creation of the ; of which he became an honorary Academician in 1793 and served as Counselor from 1797 to 1802. His actions were decisive in establishing the and the . He also gave grants and stipends to numerous promising students; enabling them to study architecture and engraving in Madrid. His friendship with Goya apparently dates from their youth, when they studied together, although some historians have questioned this. In any event, they were known to have been close friends at the time of Goya's wedding, in 1773. His collection of letters passed to his grand-nephew, Francisco Zapater y Gómez, who published some of them and wrote a short biography of Goya.

External links

"Martín Zapater"
@ the ''

Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa The ''Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa'' (''Great Aragonese Encyclopedia'', commonly abbreviated ''GEA'') is a Spanish language, Aragon-themed, encyclopedia. It was first published in 1981, under the direction of Eloy Fernández Clemente. In 1999, Pren ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Zapater, Martin 1747 births 1803 deaths Spanish merchants Spanish philanthropists People from Zaragoza 18th-century philanthropists 18th-century Spanish businesspeople

Biography

Further reading

External links