GUEST WORK
François Duchatel
"Portrait of Dom Francisco de Moura Corte Real, 3rd marquis of Castelo Rodrigo"
Museu Quinta das Cruzes, Funchal (Madeira)

A nobleman of Portuguese origin, Francisco de Moura, 3rd Marquess of Castelo Rodrigo, exercised the highest positions in the service of the Royal House of Habsburg during the Dual Monarchy period, distinguishing himself as a diplomat. He was Ambassador in Vienna, Viceroy of Sardinia and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. It was during this period that this portrait took shape in all probability by the hand of the painter François Duchatel (1616?-1679), a Flemish artist born in Brussels, student of David Teniers the Younger and who worked in Adam van der Meulen's workshop in Paris.
What attracts us in this painting is not the mere physical materialisation of the marquess or the technical capacity of the portraitist. In it the portrayed, the main character, is revealed to us in a representation in which being and appearance merge in an attempt at perpetuation; the ultimate goal of the art of portrait.