Tiepolo's altarpieces stood for years in the convent adjacent to the church and were ultimately dispersed in the early nineteenth century. The quality of the final canvases is often disparaged, but several of these altar- pieces—such as The Immaculate Conception (fig. 10.1) — stand among his greatest ecclesiastical works. Nonetheless, other paintings are less inspired in their final form, in some cases because of the heavy hand of studio assis- tants, in others because of serious damage to the works. The sketches, on the other hand, stand among the most remarkable examples of religious art in the late eighteenth century. They are masterpieces of this artist's late style, at once noble and restrained, as well as deeply personal expressions of a 10 visionary spirituality NOTES 1 The Alcantarines later joined with other of illusionistic Baroque ceiling painting Observant friars to form the Order coexisting with rigorously classicizing of Friars Minor, a currently active order. easel painting, consider the late eighteenth- 2 This essay depends heavily on Catherine century redecoration of the Villa Borghese Whistler's many crucial contributions, in Rome (see Carole Paul, "Mariano Rossi's including the accurate chronology Camillus Fresco in the Villa Borghese," of events. See especially Whistler 1984; Art Bulletin 74 (1992): 297-326). Whistler I98$b; Whistler 1986; 7 The friars of Aranjuez appear to have had Christiansen 1996 (entries by Whistler), no substantive contribution to the debate, 194, 196-97, 242-53; and Whistler 1998. and their opinions on the vicissitudes 3 For the relationship of Eleta and Tiepolo, of Tiepolo's work for their church remain see Whistler 1984, 99-103; and Whistler unclear. 1985^ 202. Eleta's staunch allegiance 8 Whistler 1984, 379-80; Whistler 1985^ to protocol led him to eschew direct com- 325-26. munication with Tiepolo. The artist was 9 On Anton Raphael Mengs's religious required to communicate to Eleta through paintings for Madrid, see Steffi Roettgen, Francesco Sabatini (1721-1797), the Anton Raphael Mengs, 1728-1779, 2 vols. king's architect and the overall head of (Munich: Himmer Verlag, 1999), i: 143-47, the Aranjuez project. Documents suggest and 2:351-54; the entry by Steffi Roettgen that Tiepolo mistakenly believed that Eleta in Bowron and Rishel 2000, 410-11; had decision-making powers. For Tiepolo's and especially Jose Luis Sancho and Javier correspondence, see G. B. Urbani de Jordan de Urries y de la Colina, "Mengs Gheltof, "Tiepolo in Ispagna," Bolletino e la Spagna," in Mengs: La scoperta del de arti e curiosita veneziane (1880): 174, 180. Neoclassico, exhibition catalogue, edited by 4 Whistler 1984, 323; Whistler 1998, 72-73. Steffi Roettgen (Venice: Marsilio, 2001), 5 Whistler 1984, 108, 159-62; Whistler 1986, 70-85. 199-201. 10 For the critical response to the sketches, 6 For Tiepolo's final fresco commission, see Whistler 1984, 52. see Whistler I985a. For another case study THE CHURCH OF SAN PASCUAL BAYLON 63