San Julian de Cuenca: a modello, feigned arch

This is a sketch for a wing of the altarpiece in the church of Saint James the Greater in Madrid, the rebuilding of which in 1811 was overseen by the first owner of the present picture, the Archbishop of Seville and Toledo. The artist, the son of a Valencian painter of the same name, travelled to Madrid in 1751, where he studied drawing and modelling under the sculptor Felipe de Castro for two years. However, he felt painting to be his vocation and joined the students directed by Antonio González Velázquez at the Real Academia de S Fernando, where he completed his studies in 1757. In 1758, after an unsuccessful attempt to go to America, he went to Rome; on returning to Spain in 1765, Maella was elected Académico de Mérito by the Real Academia, and he entered the circle of Anton Raphael Mengs, who, impressed by his fluency of brushwork, sense of colour and professionalism, protected and helped him. He shared with Francisco Bayeu a commission from King Charles III in 1772 for frescoes depicting various saints and The Immaculate Conception in the dome of the chapel of the Palacio Real, and he was appointed Pintor de Cámara in 1774, participating with Bayeu in a second joint commission from the King in 1775, for frescoes of the Life of Saint Leocritia in the cloister of Toledo Cathedral. Maella also worked for the Real Fábrica de Tapices, directing the work of younger artists and producing such cartoons as Seascape and Fishermen (both 1785; Madrid, Prado). Maella became Director of Painting at the Academia in 1794 and Director General there in 1795; in 1799 he became Primer Pintor del Rey.