Ramón Bayeu y Subías (2 December 1744,

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

– 1 March 1793,

Aranjuez Aranjuez () is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Community of Madrid. Located in the southern end of the region, the main urban nucleus lies on the left bank of Tagus, a bit upstream the discharge of the Jarama. , the municipality h ...

) was a Spanish

Neoclassicist Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...

painter; known primarily for his work in

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...

design.

Biography

His father made surgical instruments and barbers' tools. He was the brother of

Francisco Bayeu Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

, with whom he worked, and Manuel Bayeu, also a painter. In 1758, when Francisco received a scholarship to study in Madrid, Ramón and his siblings followed; having been orphaned. Francisco was expelled in 1759, so Ramón returned to Zaragoza with him and became his first student. In 1763, when Francisco was given a position at the

Royal Tapestry Factory The Royal Tapestry Factory (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Real Fábrica de Tapices de Santa Bárbara'') is a manufacturing plant located in Madrid, Spain, which was founded in 1720. History The factory was founded by Philip V of Spain, Philip V ...

by King

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person t ...

, he went back to Madrid and enrolled at the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acade ...

. In 1766, he received a scholarship to study in Italy. After 1773, he painted designs and "cartones" (cartoons) for the tapestry factory; creating 35 in all. several of which became well known through reproductions. He collaborated with his brother-in-law,

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

, on several commissions; at the Royal Monastery in

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

and the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in

Valdemoro Valdemoro is a municipal district, located in the Southern zone of the autonomous community of Madrid, Spain. Located 27 kilometers from the capital, Valdemoro is officially part of the comarca of La Sagra, though it is generally also included ...

. He also executed several frescoes in the

Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar :''See Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar (Buenos Aires) for the church in Buenos Aires'' The Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar ( es, Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar) is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Zaragoza ...

in Zaragoza. He served as assistant director of the factory from 1765. In 1776, he applied for a position as "Painter to the King" and, although he did not receive the title, was awarded an annual pension of 8,000 reales. He applied again, unsuccessfully, in 1778. When the factory's operations were suspended in 1780, due to lack of funds, he worked as an itinerant painter for five years. In 1786, following a request by Francisco and

Mariano Salvador Maella Mariano Salvador Maella Pérez (21 August 1739 – 10 May 1819) was a Spanish painter known primarily for his portraits and religious frescoes. Biography Maella was born in Valencia. His artistic education began with his father, who was al ...

, he was appointed Director of the factory; a position he held until his death. An application for

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

, made in 1788, was not successful. In 1791, he refused to continue painting cartones, in light of the religious works and portraits he had done, but was threatened with a suspension of his salary. As a compromise, he was also made a court painter, but without extra pay. In 1792, he began to display the serious symptoms of lead poisoning, which he had contracted years before while free-lancing. Despite a rest period, he continued to worsen. He died the following year, while in Aranjuez, working on a project for the King. He had never married and left no heirs. Many of his engravings reproduce famous paintings, such as

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vi ...

's ''Liberation of St. Peter'', now housed in the Museo del Prado, which also preserves some of his cartones.

Sources

"Ramón Bayeu: obras destruidas y desaparecidas"
by José Luis Morales y Marín],

Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes The Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library (MCVL; in es, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, BVMC) is a large-scale digital library project, hosted and maintained by the University of Alicante in Alicante, Spain. It comprises the largest open-ac ...

External links

"Ramón Bayeu y Subías"
Diccionario Biográfico Español, Arturo Ansón Navarro (ed.) Real Academia de la Historia
Ramón Bayeu
@ ''Epdlp''
Digitalized works
in the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica @ the

Biblioteca Nacional de España The Biblioteca Nacional de España (''National Library of Spain'') is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos. History The library was founded by K ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayeu, Ramon 1744 births 1793 deaths People from Zaragoza 18th-century Spanish painters 18th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando alumni