Attributed to Georg Schweigger

These extraordinary family portraits date from Francisco De Moura’s time at the Viennese court as ambassador to the Holy Roman Emperor. They were made to celebrate a century of loyalty serving as courtiers and diplomats to the Habsburg rulers of Spain and portray Francisco, his father Manuel, his grandfather Cristóvão De Moura y Távora, the 1st Marquis of Castel Rodrigo with his wife Margarida. Recent research conducted by Alexander Kader has identified the author of these busts as Georg Schweigger (1613 – 1690), the great Nuremberg sculptor who, in this same period, also created the large bust of Emperor Ferdinand III, now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Conceived within a cosmopolitan courtly milieu and produced between Nuremberg and Vienna, the group exemplifies the highest level of bronze portraiture north of the Alps, combining technical refinement with a powerful language of aristocratic self-representation. As such, the ensemble offers a rare insight into both seventeenth century court culture and the sophistication of Northern European bronze casting.