109 - JOSE MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ DE LOSADA

JOSE MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ DE LOSADA Seville 1826 - Jerez de la Frontera 1896 The Andalusian and the Golden Bullet (Episode from the Battle of Pavia). 1852 Oil on canvas Signed, dated, titled, and dedicated on the reverse. Dimensions: 146 x 105 cm Provenance: - Collection of the Duke of Rivas, Córdoba. - Collection of the Marquesses of Viana, Córdoba. - Private collection, Madrid. Inscribed on the reverse: "The Andalusian and the Golden Bullet, an episode from the Battle of Pavia, for His Excellency the Duke of Rivas, taken from his Romances. Seville, July 8, 1892." An exceptional example of José María Rodríguez de Losada's mature historical painting, visually illustrating the ballad "The Victory of Pavia," published by the Duke of Rivas in 1841. The work immortalizes the ingenious passage in which a daring soldier of the Imperial Tercios presents a valuable bullet to the defeated King Francis I of France (represented by the seated figure on the left), confessing that he had melted it down expressly to grant him a dignified death. To articulate the military composition of the scene, the Sevillian painter drew formal inspiration from the illustrious captains of Zurbarán's celebrated Defense of Cádiz against the English (Prado Museum). It is worth noting, as its most singular feature, that the artist himself included his self-portrait, subtly disguised among the figures in the composition. This piece stands out remarkably as a testament to the select collecting of the House of Viana, as a magnificent tribute to romantic literature, and as a revealing document of the painter's personal iconography.