Circle by FRANCISCO BAYEU (Saragossa, 1734 - Madrid, 1795), last third of the 18th century."

Circle by FRANCISCO BAYEU (Saragossa, 1734 - Madrid, 1795), last third of the 18th century.
"Nativity".
Oil on copper.
It presents slight faults.
Measurements: 26,5 x 34 cm; 36,5 x 42 cm (frame); 49 x 37 x 58 x 47 cm (frame).
In this work we can appreciate a devotional image, with the Virgin, St. Joseph and the Child, next to them an angel kneels down and seems to give him some cloths, which the delicate hand of the Virgin holds. The Gospel of Saint Luke tells us that Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary went to Bethlehem to be registered following a census ordered by Rome and adds: "And it came to pass, while they were there, that the days of childbirth were fulfilled, and she gave birth to her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because they had no room in the inn.
Aesthetically the work is close to the pictorial precepts of the artist Francisco Bayeu, a member of a notable family of artists, brother of the painters Ramón and Manuel, Francisco Bayeu was also the brother-in-law of Francisco de Goya. He began his training in his native Saragossa, attending the workshop of Juan Andrés Merklein, a painter of Bohemian origin, and the drawing classes of José Luzán Martínez. In 1756 he was awarded the Extraordinary Prize at the San Fernando Academy, which earned him a scholarship in 1758 to study for two years at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid. However, Bayeu left the academy only two months later because of his disagreements with one of the professors, Antonio González Velázquez. He then returned to Saragossa and his financial situation became complicated, as the death of his parents forced him to take charge of his family. He then began his career as a painter, carrying out commissions for churches and convents in the city. Around this time, in 1759, he married Sebastiana Merklein, the daughter of his master. During these years he developed a language that was still youthful, marked by the influence of Lucas Jordán and Corrado Giaquinto. However, in 1762 Anton Raphael Mengs, the leading court painter, visited Saragossa and asked him to work with him on the decoration of the new Royal Palace. Thanks to Mengs's protection, Bayeu carried out various decorative commissions for the Royal Sites, thus establishing himself as one of the most outstanding painters of the day. These early works for the court included the fresco decoration of the vaults of the dining room in the queen's bedroom ("The Surrender of Granada") and the antechamber of the Princes of Asturias ("The Fall of the Giants"). His Baroque training is still evident in these works, but elements of his mature language can already be glimpsed, such as the elegance of the positions, the meticulousness, the neoclassical lighting effects and the perfect anatomical study. By the 1760s his neoclassical aesthetic was fully formed, marked by a clean, precise drawing and a palette that played with the contrast of reds and yellows over a tonality based on blues and greys, as can be seen in "Hercules on Olympus" (conversation room of the Princes of Asturias in the Royal Palace), "Apollo remunerating the Arts" (El Pardo) or "Providence presiding over the virtues and faculties of man" (room next to the gala dining room of the Royal Palace). Within his religious production of these years, the eleven fresco scenes illustrating the lives and miracles of Toledo saints in Toledo Cathedral, works that were already completely indebted to Mengs, are particularly noteworthy.