Torre de la Parada by Felix Castello ca. 1640.
Torre de la Parada, c. 1670.[ 1]
The Torre de la Parada is a former hunting lodge that was located in present-day Monte de El Pardo in Fuencarral-El Pardo , near the Royal Palace of El Pardo , some way outside Madrid in the Sierra de Guadarrama . It was mostly destroyed by fire when taken in 1714 by Austrian troops in the War of Spanish Succession , though the ruins remain.[ 2]
History
It was first built in 1547-49, with Luis de Vega as the architect. During the years 1635–40 it was a site for a major architectural and decorative project by King Philip IV of Spain who was a great hunting enthusiast. He commissioned the Spanish architect Juan Gómez de Mora to renovate it in 1636, and had it decorated by leading painters, including Rubens and Velázquez , who contributed some of his "jester" portraits, including The Jester Don John of Austria , The Jester Don Diego de Acedo , Portrait of Francisco Lezcano and Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid .[ 3] His Aesop and Menippus are also thought to have been intended for the lodge, as well as several of his well-known portraits of the royal family relaxed in hunting or riding clothes, including Prince Balthasar Charles as a Hunter .
Rubens was commissioned in 1636 to produce sixty mythological paintings, which he managed to do in about 18 months, assisted by Jacob Jordaens , Cornelis de Vos , Peter Snayers , Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert , Theodoor van Thulden , Jan Boeckhorst and others, working to his designs. Forty of the paintings survive, as well as many of Rubens' oil sketches and drawings.[ 4] Most of all these works are in the Prado in Madrid.
The best paintings were later moved elsewhere, especially in 1710, but in 1806 a travel book describes paintings by the Flemish painters Paul de Vos , Erasmus Quellinus II , Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert , Jan Cossiers , and "Yoris" (possibly Joris van Son who worked with Erasmus Quellinus).[ 5]
Notes
References
Further reading
Alpers, Svetlana , The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada , Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard (HMCRLB 9), 1978, Harvey Miller, ISBN 9780199210152
Vlieghe, Hans, "Jacob Jordaens's Activity for the Torre de la Parada", The Burlington Magazine , Vol. 110, No. 782 (May, 1968), pp. 262–265+267-268, JSTOR
External links
Media related to Torre de la Parada at Wikimedia Commons
Royal sites of the Patrimonio Nacional
Royal Palaces Monasteries Other
Former Royal Palaces1 FormerSub-national seats 1 This section includes the royal palaces of the Christian and Muslim medieval kingdoms
Category
40°32′41″N 03°45′19″W / 40.54472°N 3.75528°W / 40.54472; -3.75528