On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P01683
- Author
- Brueghel “the Elder,” Jan (Flemish); Rubens, Peter Paul (Flemish)
- Title
- Archduke Alberto de Austria
- Chronology
- Ca. 1615
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 112 cm x 173 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- No
- Entrance
- COLECCION REAL
- Procedence
- Royal Collection
Alberto de Austria, the sovereign
prince of the Low Countries, is
dressed in black and sits under a
canopy indicating that this is a
court portrait. Unlike the
customary indoor portraits, this
one is set on a balcony open to a
landscape that includes Tervuren
Palace, near Brussels. This
portrait, and that of his wife,
Isabel Clara (P1684), seeks not
only to bring out the figure of the
Archduke, but also to emphasize the
rulers' ties to their lands. At the
same time, the palace, which was
the former residence of the Duke
and Dutchess of Brabante,
represents dynastic
continuity.
The combination of official
portrait and landscape stems from
Rubens collaboration with Jan
Brueghel, in which the former made
the figures and the latter, the
landscape and architecture. This
work was made in the second decade
of the seventeenth century, when
the two artists worked most closely
together.
This painting was probably brought
to Spain for the collection of
Rodrigo Calderón, Marquis of
Sieteiglesias. When he died in
1621, it passed to Felipe IV.
