3-097-654 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The painter Vicente Poleró y Toledo, 1873. Portrait of Madrazo's friend at the age of 49, sporting a full moustache and goatee. Vicente Poleró y Toledo was a student at the School of Fine Arts in his hometown and at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. His artistic life was always linked to restoration, the practice of which he theorized in 1853 with the publication of his "Art of Restoration." Through the mediation of José de Madrazo, he received the commission to restore the paintings at El Escorial, and carried out critical and historical studies on the Monastery's collection of paintings, codices, and manuscripts. In 1863, when Federico de Madrazo was director of the Prado Museum, he was appointed the museum's third restorer. A fruitful and intense relationship of personal and professional trust developed between Madrazo and Poleró. Poleró became an outspoken advocate for the major museum reform that, under the auspices of the country's new political situation, called for the consolidation of the Prado and National Museum collections into a single museum. His personality as a painter was somewhat overshadowed by that of a writer - his countless studies on private collections, iconography, portraits, etc., stand out - and a restorer.