Viceregal school. Perú. Central decades of the 18th century (reign of King Ferdinand VI, 1746-1749)

Viceregal school. Perú. Central decades of the 18th century (reign of King Ferdinand VI, 1746-1749)“Inauguration of the office of alderman of Lima, of the viceroyalty of Peru, Don Fernando de Rojas Marres” and ”The Exaltation of the House of Nobility of the alderman of Lima, Don Fernando de Rojas Marres”Pair of oil paintings on canvas. 100 x 73 cm. each.The first painting is divided into two parts, the upper part possibly showing the swearing-in or oath of office of the new alderman of Lima, Don Fernando de Rojas Marres of the viceroyalty of Peru, as he climbs the semicircular stairs to the throne from which he will make government decisions. The golden throne is topped by a red curtain and an open crown, clear symbols of power. Behind it, the two Tuscan columns symbolise the strength and fortitude that every ruler must have in order to lead their people. Above the crown, apart from the word ‘fortune’, an allusion to this virtue, the scene is accompanied by two other virtues linked to power and dignitaries, science on the left and fame on the right. The two female figures who bestow symbols of power, the ruler's sceptre and the crown are the ruler's acolytes and witnesses to the scene.The central figure is dressed in the fashion of Ferdinand VI's reign, which dates the painting and its companion piece to the middle decades of the 18th century. To complete the parallelism of the central scene at the top, two noble coats of arms are placed at either end. The one on the right, topped by the helmet of a warrior, indicates the rank of knight or order of nobility of the person, who would in turn belonged to the order of knighthood of Santiago, one of the four most important orders of knighthood in Spain along with those of Calatrava, Montesa and Alcántara. During the restoration of the painting, the change in the iconography of the area of the coat of arms where the eagle is located came to light. Initially there were three vertical golden bands which were covered by the bird, although it is not clear whether this change was made while the painting was being executed or after the work was completed. The other coat of arms, this time with the crown of government, shows very different heraldry with no distinction of knighthood.The change the coat of arms underwent in this painting also affected its counterpart in the other painting.The noble coats of arms could have belonged to Rojas Marres' paternal branch, that of Don Feliciano de Rojas Ponce de León, and to his maternal branch, that of Doña Juana de Marres, or it is also possible that the one on the left could have been his own, that of the alderman, and the one on the right that of his wife, Doña María María Ana Concepción del Castillo Castañeda.Whilst the upper part of the painting represents political power and command over the people and the virtues that accompany the governor in order to govern well, the lower part, the most didactic part of the canvas, shows the values and qualities of the new government through the representation of 32 squares with elements divided into two panels of 16 squares each.The panel on the left represents objects that have explanatory symbolism linked to elements of power, while the panel on the right shows scenes with a written phylactery above them. These panels would have helped to explain the iconological programme, which symbolised the political programme of the new ruler, to the illiterate population, who made up the majority of the indigenous or native peoples at the time.The second painting shows that the importance of the family and its service to the empire rests on the Spanish monarchy and the Catholic faith.As if it were a ‘Tree of Jesse’, the distribution of the different elements that make up the rich and varied composition of the painting are arranged in a highly symmetrical and rational order.The base of the tree rises above the strong figure of the Child Virgin Mary on her throne, iconography that was very popular during the 17th and 18th centuries throughout Latin America, partly due to Zurbarán's paintings that came from the old continent to the ‘New World’. The feather below could refer to the feather of the archangel Saint Gabriel in the Annunciation. Given that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was a matter of State and of protection by the Hispanic monarchy, the weight of the Crown rests on it and rests on the figure of the Virgin Mary; as one of the columns of Hercules in the coat of arms of Spain, legendary founder of the Hapsburg dynasty, acts as the trunk of the tree with the phylactery bearing the motto ‘NON PLUS ULTRA’, before Charles V and the anagram ‘Victor’ in golden letters.This anagram is flanked by the lion of Spain and the eagle of Saint John, protector of the Spanish monarchy, both also with golden crowns. On this rests the royal crown of the Bourbons, thus constructing the trunk of the compositional tree, where monarchy and religion are the pillars on which the family's noble coat of arms rests, which in turn is crowned by a laurel wreath bearing an angel and a scroll with golden symbols.The different branches of the ‘tree’ are divided according to the symbols and their distribution.In the upper part, the elements depicted are linked to the litanies of the Immaculate Conception, symbols related to the Virgin Mary. At the top is the sun, the eight-pointed star which has been linked to the Virgin Mary since antiquity, and the moon. The king of the day and the queen of the night contemplate the scene. Between there and the middle of the painting are a rose bush and an olive tree on the left, and a bunch of lilies and a cypress on the right, flowers and plants associated with Mary. All the iconographic repertoire, together with the symbols of the Marian litanies in the upper part of the painting, the elements of science (the book, the compass, the globe and the candle that is not extinguished by the four winds, also depicted) and the six virtues in the lower part, justify the service and work of this noble house to the royal house and the Catholic religion, the foundations of the Spanish empire in the Latin American colonies.In conclusion, these two paintings present a political programme for the government of the new ruler of Lima in the 18th century. The importance of this pair of canvases lies precisely in the way they represent this political programme by justifying the noble house as being in the service of the King of Spain and the Catholic faith. To this end, it also makes use of a graceful play of symbols, something rare to see in paintings from Spain itself, but common in the Americas, to educate and explain to the people how their new rulers will exercise their power.We are grateful to the art historian and restorer Ignacio Panicello for cataloguing and identifying these paintings.Provenance: Former collection belonging to Adrián de Rojas Maestre (descendant of the regent of Lima, Don Fernando de Rojas Marres).This family, or part of it, with important historical links, settled in Spain before 1950 at the Finca El Maestre in Seville. The paintings have always belonged to the family.The subject of our paintings, Fernando de Rojas Marrés, was born in Ceuta and died circa 1800 in Madrid.There is a record in the Spanish Historical Archive of his transfer to the Americas as a ‘Merchant of textiles, he went to South America on the ship Aquiles under the charge of Captain Martin Joseph de Echenique, bringing cargo directly to the port of Callao Lima. Record of information and passenger licence to the Indies of Fernando de Rojas y Marres’.