La serie de la Vida de San Francisco Javier del Colegio Imperial de Madrid (1692) y otras pinturas de Paolo de Matteis en España

Abstract

This work develops some aspects of the works of Paolo de Matteis (Piano del Cilento, 1662-Naples, 1728) which were realized for Spain The focus is on the reconstruction of a series of twenty-two paintings of the Vida de San Francisco Javier, painted for the cloister of the Colegio Imperial of Madrid. Matteis began these painting in 1692. In order to undergo this project, he urilized the Inventario of 1767, motivated by the expulsion of The compañi de Jesus (Socety of Jesus) decreed by Charles III, which accurately describes the themes. Added to the two well known paintings of several decades wer five new iconographic pintins of similar formal features. The study of this theme raises questions of iconography of the oldes Italian and Flemish prints dedicated to San Francisco Javier, as well as their influence in the dissemination of the cult and in the series of narrative paintings in the Jesuit schools of Spain. The excellent relationships between Pauolo de Matteis and The Jesuits, and with te marqués del Carpio, ambassador in Rome and Viceroy of Naples at the end of the 17th century, produced other paintings destined to go to schoools of The Compañía de Jesús as well as to private collectors who are also analyzed in this work.