''The Recovery of Bahía de Todos los Santos'' is a mature work by the Spanish painter

Juan Bautista Maíno Friar Juan Bautista Maíno, or Mayno (October 1581, Pastrana – 1 April 1649, Madrid) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Biography His father was a merchant who sold Milanese fabrics and his mother was a Portuguese noblewoman. Both were at th ...

(1580–1649). It was painted between 1634 and 1635 and commemorates the recapture of the Brazilian port of

Salvador da Bahia Salvador (English: ''Savior'') is a Brazilian municipality and capital city of the state of Bahia. Situated in the Zona da Mata in the Northeast Region of Brazil, Salvador is recognized throughout the country and internationally for its cuisi ...

from the Dutch by

Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Mendoza Fadrique de Toledo or Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Mendoza, 1st Marquess of Valdueza (Naples, 30 May 1580 – Madrid, 11 December 1634), was a Spanish noble and admiral. He was a Knight of the Order of Santiago and Captain General of the Spani ...

in May 1625 and its return to the

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the ...

. Originally in the

Salón de Reinos The ''Salón de Reinos'' (translated as "Hall of the Kingdoms" or "Hall of Realms") or ''salón grande'' ("great hall") is a 17th-century building in Madrid, originally a wing of the Buen Retiro Palace. The Salón de Reinos and the Casón del Bu ...

for which it was painted, it is now in the

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

, in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. The painting avoids triumphalism and shows the suffering of war. In the right background Fadrique Álvarez beckons to an allegorical portrait of Philip III of Portugal trampling War, Wrath and Heresy and being crowned with laurels by Victoria and the Conde-Duque de Olivares. In front of the portrait are men celebrating the victory, but in the rest of the foreground is the aftermath of the battle, with men, women and children surrounding, helping and watching a wounded soldier, embodying Piety, Charity and Suffering.

External links

Page
on the Prado website

on artehistoria {{DEFAULTSORT:Recovery Of Bahia, The 1635 paintings Paintings of the Museo del Prado by Spanish artists Baroque paintings category:Paintings by Juan Bautista Maíno