This likeness of the Franciscan clergyman is a significant example of elongated bust portraits that are quiet customary in the Western figurative tradition. Such works allow a closer approach to the model’s essential features, reducing but not eliminating accessory elements such as his clothing and a summary depiction of the surrounding space. Rather than overly limiting information on the protago
This triptych is the principal creation and the work that has given the name to an anonymous follower of Rogier van der Weyden, previously identified as Vrancke van der Stockt. The triptych belonged to Leonor de Mascarenhas (1503-1584), a Portuguese lady who moved to Spain in 1526 and was aya to Philip II and afterwards to his son Don Carlos. When in 1564 she founded the convent of Franciscan nuns
This painting is both beautiful in appearance and enigmatic on account of its problems of attribution, its authorship having fluctuated between several artists, all belonging to the aesthetic environment of Michelangelo Merisi, Caravaggio. Indeed, although it is now definitely ascribed to Serodine, some critics still believe it to be the work of the latter. Its history can be traced back to 1647,
Margarita was born on 12 July 1651, the daughter of Philip IV and Mariana of Austria. On 12 December 1666, she married Emperor Leopold of Austria and died seven years later in Vienna. The fact that the princess is wearing mourning dress in this painting helps date it between September 1665 -when her father died- and her wedding in December 1666. Those dates suggest that the portrait was made in or
Wearing a child´s dress of branched yellow fabric with silver adornments and the sash and cross of the Order of the Saint-Esprit, the future monarch rests his right hand on a small dog that stands atop a chair partially covered by a curtain. His gesture seeks to calm the animal, who is barking at a monkey on the other side of the prince. The small simian is attempting to grab his leash, whic
An inventory from 1636 describes this striking portrait of the Infante Ferdinand: A half-length portrait, which the Marquis of Leganés brought back, of the Infante Ferdinand in the dress and manner in which His Highness entered Brussels. He has a baton in his right hand. He wears a bright red velvet coat with gold trim, and a scarlet sash embroidered with gold, in which there is a broadswor
This portrait presents the lady at full length, dressed in the fashion of the time in a tulle gown with lace details. Goya perfectly captures the translucence of the fabric, through which we see the shimmer of the pink skirt the sitter wears underneath. At her waist the lady wears a wide black tulle band, which is also semi-transparent, and on the waistband she has pinned a lovely cameo brooch. He
Like its companion (P7906), this piece was acquired by the Museo del Prado with an attribution to Fernández el Labrador (doc. 1629-1657), a painter specialized in depictions of grapes. However, the similarity of both paintings to a canvas at the Museo Cerralbo (Madrid, Inv. no. 3898) on which Pret’s signature was discovered in 2013, explains its new attribution to that Flemish-born still-li
While not absolutely certain, this is generally considered a self-portrait by Sánchez Coello, a pupil of Anthonis Mor and first court portraitist to Philip II. The artist deploys a detailed technique that is more precise and descriptive in the treatment of the white fabric of the ruff and slightly looser and more flexible in the face.
This is one of the Spanish Renaissance’s most emblematic depictions of a female figure and the best known of Yáñez de la Almedina’s works. Both considerations are due to the visibility this work has received at the Museo del Prado, where it has been one of the essential icons in its galleries of 16th-century Spanish painting ever since it arrived in 1946. According to Jacopo de la Vo
Francesco Donato, ambassador to Spain (1504), England (1509) and Florence (1512), maintained Venice’s neutrality in the war between Charles V and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and contributed to the peace treaty with Soliman. Elected Doge at the age of 77, he remained in office until his death in 1553. The identification of the sitter is based on the existence of two versions of the portrait: in
As part of the Royal Collection, the City Treasurer and his Wife (the so-called Money Changer and his Wife) is one of the few paintings by Marinus in Spain that can be traced to the eighteenth century, and one which played a decisive role in the rediscovery of the painter’s work. However, when it was first recorded in the collection of Isabel Farnesio in 1746 it was attributed to Lucas de Olanda (
This portrait is a full-length likeness of Philip II’s third wife, Queen Isabel de Valois. She wears a black gown with pointed sleeves and a long train that is curled around her body and billows at the back. Poking out from beneath her hanging sleeves, held in place with ruby and diamond buttons and lined in white fabric, are silver and gold undersleeves. The one-piece gown is decorated with appli
This painting was intended to hang to the right of the Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV (P01178) and it depicts that monarch´s first wife, Elizabeth of Bourbon (1602-1644), whom he married in 1615. The two portraits contain a play of differences and similarities similar to those between the equestrian portraits of Philip III (P01176) and his wife (P01177), which correspond to the different roles o
This female effigy was once attributed to the Andalusian artist José Gutiérrez de la Vega (Seville, 1791–Madrid, 1865) who worked in the pictorial tradition of Murillo. However, this claim became untenable from a formal point of view after analysing the aesthetic and technical characteristics of the piece, and in 1999 the work was given its current attribution. The painting depicts a
One of the artist’s few signed works, Ranc’s depiction of the Prince of Asturias, later Ferdinand VI of Spain, subtly balances the sitter’s youthful grace and the symbolic significance of his role. The description of the fabric of Ferdinand’s clothes is particularly meticulous, creating a striking symphony of colours and textures.
On 24 February 1882, Alfonso Roswag y Nogier, the son-in-law of Jean Laurent and his partner in the firm J. Laurent y Cía., filed a patent application for a device called "the Graphoscope or revolving apparatus applicable to all types of views and advertisement-signs". Its purpose was "to place inside a box or cabinet, of small size, a relatively considerable series of views or advertisemen
Preparatory drawing for a painting of the same subject, now held in a private collection in London but previously in Madrid at the end of the 19th century in the possession of the general Quesada. In this work, the Child sleeps on the lap of his mother, who holds him tenderly. The Virgin is depicted alongside Saint Joseph, with Saint Joachim and Saint Anne completing the scene to the left. Zechari