Portrait of a child
Late XVII century. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
The wealthy clothing of the child and the setting in which he stands suggest the social status of this unknown and sad model. The costume and accessories allow us to date this painting to the last years of the 17th century, making it an interesting graphic record of the nobility during the unfortunate Charles II´s reign.
The painting depicts the delicate and fragile figure of an anonymous long-haired child with a melancholic look. The artist of this painting, which recalls the child portraits of the sovereign, must be an artist who knew well the formulas used by Carreño de Miranda. The existing similarity suggests that the artist must have been a quiet admirer of the master.
On this occasion, the representation of the table, the curtains or the cane is echoed in a symbolic language known to the seventeenth-century viewer. The names of Pedro Ruiz González, Sebastián Muñoz or Ignacio Ruiz de la Iglesia can be remembered among those who practiced portraiture in Madrid in the last years of the century, whose style, as court portraitists, has not yet been sufficiently clarified.
