File:A portrait of Doña Andrea Roman de Aulestia y Cedreros y Gomez-Boguete y Monte Alegre.jpg

English: Spanish colonial scjool (Peru)

A portrait of Doña Andrea Roman de Aulestia y Cedreros y Gomez-Boguete y Monte Alegre

Inscribed: La S.ra D.a Andrea Roman de Aulestia y Cedreros, Gomes Boguete, yMonte Alegre, Natural de esta Ciudad, Muger legitima del General D.n Ygnacio Vazquez de Acuña, Murió en 15, de Dicembre 1757.

18th century

Oil on canvas, 75 5/8 x 50 inches (192 x 127 cm.)

The subject of the portrait, Doña Andrea Roman, stands resplendently attired before a dark background. To one side a crimson curtain is pulled aside; it serves both to reveal the subject and to establish the setting as a domestic environment. Balancing it visually at the upper right is the coat-of-arms of her family. She holds a fan in her right hand and a rose with two buds –perhaps an allusion to her two children, Francisco and Josefa-Gabriela—in her left. It rests above an elegant console table, below which appears an escutcheon with a commemorative inscription identifying the subject.

The subject of the portrait was Andrea Román de Aulestia y Gómez-Bogute, who was born in Lima and married to Ignacio Vázquez de Acuña y Zorilla de la Gándara, who held the titles of Corregidor de Huamanga and General de los Reales Ejércitos. She prepared her will on November 16, 1757, and, according to the inscription on the painting, died on December 15 following. Andrea’s husband Ignacio was the great-grandson of Juan Vázquez de Acuña, one of the founding figures of Chile. Born in Madrid, he had come to Chile in 1576 as a Captain of a company of sixty men with General Juan de Losada. He subsequently became Mayor of Santiago before transferring to Lima, where his son Ignacio and grandson Juan José were was born.