propagandist of the enlightened mentality until the "mistaken" choice in 1808 when, being in the favour of the new king, Jose I, he fell in disgrace of Fernando VII, who eulogized Vicente Lopez, the new controller of the royal taste. This wrong choice broke off a successful career in the service to the Monarchy. Thus, as Maella knew that his fortune depended on the king for whom he did an irreplaceable propagandistic work. Since he made a wrong choice, his political and artistic defeat was expected.
Maella's first teacher was his own father, as well named Mariano Salvador Maella, a second-class painter from Valencia. We do not preserve any signed work from him. After the first lessons, Maella moves to Madrid to be a student of Felipe de Castro, who introduced the neoclassic taste to the Hispanic sculpture. Later, in 1752, he enters the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, where he will be in the service of Antonio Gonzalez Velázquez, the painting teacher of the institution. This relationship will lead the marriage with his daughter, Maria Gonzalez Velázquez some years later, in 1767. His student's period in the Academy is exemplary, thus, from 1752 to 1757 he will obtains three prizes in different contests of this institution. In 1757, following his father’s will, he plans a trip to America though, finally, he will direct his steps to Rome in the beginning of 1758. The Italian period of his training is also rich in successes in the different contests in which he presented his works as well as in the gradual increase of the donations that the Academy of Fine Arts provides him with from Madrid.
At the end of 1764 or the beginning of 1765, Mariano Salvador Maella comes back to Madrid to start his professional career. In May 1765 he is nominated Academician of merit in the branch of painting and under the direction of Mengs he starts his collaboration in the decoration of the Royal Palace of Madrid. From that time the influence of Mengs is decisive in the development of his style, impregnating in him the neoclassic conception of the bohemian master whom Maella will replace in the painting class of San Fernando’s Academy from the course of 1768.
From this time Maella's career will develop without obstacles in the three directions, usual for his time: pedagogic work in San Fernando’s Academy, career in the Court and abundant artistic work. As to his participation in the work at the Academy of Fine Arts, Mariano Salvador Maella obtained on 13 February 1771 the honours of Lierutenant Director of Painting, post that will be granted to him on 2 February, 1772. Twenty years later, on 11 November, 1792, he will achieve the honours of the Director of Painting of the Academy reserving for himself the post in January, 1794, when his father-in-law, Antonio Gonzalez Velázquez, died. Finally, he will obtain the maximum recognition in the Academy, being chosen as General Director of the Academy in the triennium 1795-1798.
As to his administrative career in the Palace, the successive increases of salary allowed him to be nominated as Pintor de Cámara on 18 February 1774. In 1799, he was already appointed to the post of The First Pintor de Cámara with a salary of 50.000 reals a year, the administrative zenith that a painter could reach in Spain of the 19th century.
Thus, though the remunerations were high, the work done by Maella to obtain them was also very arduous. His artistic work at the service of the Monarchy comprised numerous fields and varied tasks. He works on various fresco decorations of royal palaces without any rest, he constantly participates in the decoration of the Royal Palace, Palaces of El Pardo, and of El Escorial. Besides, his activity is significant in the decoration of the Colegiata de la Santísima Trinidad de la Granja, the cloister and the Cathedral of Toledo, the vault of the Cathedral of Burgo de Osma...With time, he leaves the decoration of the frescoes and centres on easel painting among which stand out his representations of the royal family. Mariano Salvador Maella became, after the departure of Mengs, the official portrayer of the Monarchy. We should distinguish numerous portraits of Carlos III, made during his reign, two portraits of the Infanta Carlota Joaquina, that of Fernando VII a child... Finally, the allegories and the religious themes are also abundant in his work of that time.
But his work in the Royal House will include more subjects than the strictly pictorial ones. Among them worth emphasizing are two tasks, both shared with Francisco Bayeu: his work as a coordinator of the production of sketches for tapestries of the Royal Factory of Tapestries, that he began in 1783, and his designation, in 1785, as the chief of the conservation and restoration team for the royal collections in different royal sites.
Dedicated to his post of The First Pintor de Cámara, Maella's life will change radically with the arrival to Madrid of Jose I. He will be confirmed in his post by the new king, though, on April 11, 1809, his salary will be reduced, and will continue his work up to the return of Fernando VII. He will even accept the designation as Gentleman of the Royal Spanish Order on March 11, 1811. This decoration precisely will provoke problems for him in the future. When Fernando VII will return to the throne, Maella will be purified, deprived of his charges and retired with a pension of 12.000 reals a year. Vicente Lopez will replace him as The First Pintor de Cámara of the King and will also deprive him of the second mandate as The Director of San Fernando's Academy when, in spite of having obtained the majority of the votes of the institution, the king names Vicente Lopez to direct it, in September 1815. In this latter period his production diminishes because of his downfall and his age, worth emphasizing is only the decorative set made for the parochial Church of Villabaltér (León). Dismissed, forgotten and lonely, he finally died in Madrid on May 10, 1819. His time had passed and the new powerful people did not have any objection to reminding him about it.
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