Diego Mexía Felípez de Guzmán
Diego Mexía Felípez de Guzmán, Marqués de Leganés (* 1580 ; † 1655 ) was a Spanish politician and general as well as an important art collector and patron .
Life
Diego Mexía Felípez de Guzmán was the fourth and thus youngest son of Diego Velázquez Dávila y Bracamonte , Marqués de Loriana and Leonor de Guzmán , the aunt of Gaspar de Guzmán, Conde de Olivares . In his youth he was a page in the household of Archduke Albrecht VII of Habsburg . Even after that he remained in the service of the sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands and was involved in the fighting of the Eighty Years' War between 1600 and 1609 . After his death in 1621, Diego Mexía returned to Spain, where Philip IV had ascended the throne shortly before. His cousin Gaspar de Guzmán was a minister there and enabled him to become an influential figure. In 1622 he was briefly back in the Spanish Netherlands during the siege and surrender of Jülich, but then quickly returned to Madrid. There he held a number of important political positions. He was a member of the War Council, the Council for Internal Affairs and the Council for the Netherlands. In addition, he continued to work in military positions. So in 1625 Diego Mexía was appointed Marshal of the Castilian troops and took part in securing Cádiz against the English attack in the same year. In 1627 he was appointed Marqués de Leganés . There was considerable income associated with this title. In the same year, Diego Mexía married the daughter of General Ambrosio Spinola , Polixena Spinola. The dowry was 200,000 ducats (2,200,000 reales ). With this family connection as well as that to his cousin behind him, Diego Mexía rose to become one of the richest and most influential nobles at court.
In 1627, Diego Mexía was sent again to Flanders to enforce the Unión de Armas and the funding of 12,000 other soldiers in the States General . On his way back he visited the siege of La Rochelle with General Spinola . As a result, he received further political and military orders and positions in the Spanish Netherlands, in which he proved himself, which is why he was awarded the title of grande in 1634 . On September 24, 1635, Diego Mexía was appointed captain-general and governor of the Duchy of Milan . In this position he fought in the Franco-Spanish War from 1635 to 1659 . He defeated the Duke of Parma , Odoardo I Farnese , and forced him to sign a peace treaty. In addition, Diego Mexía was able to win some victories against Savoy and kept the French from taking the Valtellina . In 1639 he led an offensive against Piedmont , which was initially successful until he suffered a heavy defeat near Casale Monferrato . His siege of Turin in 1640 failed.
In 1641 Diego Mexía Felípez de Guzmán was ordered back to Spain. There he was given command of the Catalan army in order to repel the rebellious Catalans and the French troops who supported them in the Guerra dels Segadors . Although he defeated Tarragona , he was defeated in the Battle of Lleida in 1642. This defeat put the Marqués de Leganés out of favor at court. It was not rehabilitated until 1645. He received the title of Viceroy of Catalonia from 1645 to 1647 . During this time the successful defense of Lleida fell in 1646. After that he spent the last years of his life in Italy, where he was the chairman of the Italian council.
Art collection
Diego Mexía Felípez de Guzmán, the Marqués de Leganés, owned one of the largest and most important art collections in Europe of his time. At his death in 1655 it contained 1,300 paintings. These were located in his Madrid palace, where he also collected sculptures, tapestries , handicrafts and scientific instruments. In 1632, Diego Mexía acquired the village of Morata de Tajuña and had large gardens laid out there and a country house built in which he also housed parts of his collection. He also owned a villa eleven kilometers outside of Madrid that also housed paintings. His collection can be traced through extensive inventories. A first, short inventory dates from 1630. It comprised only 17 paintings, which made up only a fraction of his collection at the time. Eleven of the paintings listed in this way were by Titian , the others by Antonio da Correggio , Raffael , Quentin Massys , Peter Paul Rubens and Hans Holbein the Younger .
In 1642 a second inventory was made, which now comprised 1149 paintings. The inventory on his death in 1650 differed from most of the others in that it was made while he was still alive and not by a painter who visited the premises after his death. This is why much better knowledge is available about the collection of the Marqués de Leganés than about comparable collections from this period. Diego Mexía Felípez de Guzmán had personal contact with Rubens and owned 33 of his paintings, including a portrait of himself. He also owned other Flemish paintings by Clara Peeters , Jan Brueghel the Elder and Daniel Seghers . The collection also contained 58 paintings by Frans Snyders . The Marqués also owned Dutch paintings by Pieter Claesz and Willem Claesz. Heda and Floris van Dyck , who were not so often part of Spanish collections. Among the Italian paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries, works by Panfilo Nuvolone and Giovanna Garzoni were represented alongside big names such as Titian and Raphael. In addition, Diego Mexía Felípez de Guzmán owned many Spanish paintings, including 15 by Jusepe de Ribera , nine or more by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, and 18 by Juan van der Hamen y León , of which he probably owned the largest collection.
literature
- William B. Jordan : Juan van der Hamen y León & The Court of Madrid . Yale University Press, New Haven 2005. ISBN 0-300-11318-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mexía Felípez de Guzmán, Diego |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mexía, Diego |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish military, politician and art collector |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1580 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1655 |