3-097-621 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Gundemar, King of the Visigoths, 1858. Imaginary portrait of Gundemar, a Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia, who ruled 610-612. The document he is holding reads: Flavius Gunde[mar] Rex. Venerabilibus Patribus nostris Carthaginensibus Sacerdotibus in Synodo Toletana AERA. DCXXXXVIII. In Nomine Christi. Amen (King Flavius Gundemar. To our venerable Fathers, the priests of Carthaginia, at the Synod of Toledo. Era 648. In the name of Christ. Amen.) The Chronological Series of the Kings of Spain was a museum project planned in 1847 by José de Madrazo to adorn four of the new rooms at the Real Museo de Pinturas (Royal Museum of Paintings), then under his direction. At the height of the confrontation between the supporters of Isabella II and the Carlists, who denied the sovereign's right to occupy the throne because she was a woman, the queen assented to the creation and display of a portrait gallery that would represent all the preceding monarchs in chronological order. To fill the gaps of the medieval kings, of whom there were no images in the Royal Collections, portraits were commissioned from a number of young painters.