MADRID.- Colnaghi Madrid announced its participation in FERIARTE 2026, where it will present a selection of paintings and sculpture dating from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century, tracing the varied forms of religious, dynastic and domestic image-making across Spain and its overseas territories.

Highlights include Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo's pair of full-length portraits, Portrait of King Philip IV of Spain in Hunting Dress and Portrait of Cardinal-Infante Don Fernando of Austria in Hunting Dress, each nearly two metres high. The paintings bring together brothers whose lives placed them at the centre of Habsburg court and military history. Philip IV, king from 1621 to 1665, was a major patron of the arts and of Diego Velázquez, Mazo's father-in-law and principal artistic model. Don Fernando was appointed cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo at the age of ten, but went on to serve the monarchy as a soldier and governor. Named governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1632, he joined imperial forces at Nördlingen in 1634 and entered Brussels after the victory carrying the sword of Charles V. He died there in 1641, aged thirty-two.

Mazo's portraits derive from Velázquez's hunting pictures, but he adapted their compositions, including the position of the dog in Don Fernando's portrait. This relationship reflects Mazo's place in the royal court, where he served first as Velázquez's assistant and later as painter to Philip IV. The pair is documented in the Spanish Royal Collection from at least 1686. An inventory compiled after the fire at the Alcázar in 1734 records the two paintings as originals by Mazo, an important early recognition of his authorship. The portraits offer a rare, documented example of Mazo transforming his master's models into a distinctive pair within his still small known body of work.

Melchior d'Hondecoeter's Landscape with Birds (The Fable of the Raven), painted around 1670–80, takes up the familiar fable of a raven who adorns himself with feathers borrowed from other birds. When they recognise their plumage, they reclaim it. D'Hondecoeter gives the story a turn. In earlier versions, the peacocks themselves punish the raven; here, a cock attacks him while the peacock remains a witness. This change marks the painting as a particular interpretation of a subject to which the artist returned in several compositions.

Born in Utrecht in 1636, d'Hondecoeter settled in Amsterdam in 1663, where he painted large bird scenes for wealthy households and for William III. He built his compositions from oil studies of individual birds, reusing their poses across different canvases. His estate inventory records a device for posing dead birds, as well as paintings by Frans Snyders that he owned and studied.

José Cortés de Alcocer's Don José García de León y Pizarro Presents the Kingdom of Quito to King Charles III is an oil painting on copper dated 1784 and made at the conclusion of García de León y Pizarro's government in Quito. The city gave the work to him on his departure, and it passed by direct descent through his family. Its small scale belies the complexity of its political programme. At the centre, Charles III sits enthroned beneath the Spanish arms; before him, the kneeling president of the Royal Audiencia of Quito presents the kingdom, accompanied by six military commanders who had served under his administration. The work translates a colonial act of government into an image of allegiance, joining the king in Madrid to the officials and local elites who governed in his name.

García de León y Pizarro served as regent and president of the Royal Audiencia from 1777 until his departure in 1784. The likeness of Charles III follows Anton Raphael Mengs's portrait model of 1767, now in the Museo del Prado, which circulated across the Spanish monarchy. José de Gálvez, Secretary of the Universal Dispatch of the Indies, appears among the royal figures, connecting the court in Madrid with the administration in Quito. At the foot of the throne, a woman bearing a cornucopia personifies Quito. An inscription on the reverse identifies Pizarro and records the painting as a gift from Quito. His son, Don José García de León y Pizarro (1770–1835), recalls the farewell gift in his memoirs, describing a copper painting set in a grand silver frame. The inscription and memoir preserve an unusually full record of the work's origin and presentation.