On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P01177
- Author
- Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y (Spanish)
- Title
- Queen Margarita de Austria, wife of Felipe III
- Chronology
- Ca. 1631
- Technique
- Oil
- Support
- Canvas
- Measures
- 297 cm x 212 cm
- School
- Spanish
- Theme
- Portrait. Royal/Imperial
- On display
- Yes
- Procedence
- Colección Real (Palacio del Buen Retiro, Madrid, 1701, [nº 241]; Palacio Real Nuevo, Madrid, paso de tribuna y trascuartos, 1772, nº 240; Palacio Nuevo, pieza de comer, 1794, s. n.; Palacio Real, Madrid, pieza de comer, 1814-1818, nº 249).
An equestrian portrait of Queen Margarita de Austria (1584-1611), daughter of Archduke Carlos de Austria-Stiria and Maria de Baviera. She was the wife of Felipe III (1578-1621).
The Queen is dressed sumptuously, in keeping with her high station. She wears a black outer skirt embroidered with crowns and silver adornments, a gauze ruff collar, and feathers and pearls on her head. She wears the “rich jewel” on her chest, which consists of the “Estanque” diamond and the “Pilgrim” pearl.
The landscape in the background includes a garden with boxwood parterres on the left.
This painting hung on one of the smaller sides of the Hall of Kingdoms at Madrid’s Buen Retiro Palace, although it was apparently made earlier and then retouched for its new location. It is listed in the 1772 and 1794 inventories of Madrid’s Royal Palace and entered the Prado Museum collection in 1819.
