Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva, Philips IV, 1626-1628, oil on canvas, 57 X 44 cm
This is an extraordinary example of the eventful life of many royal portraits during the Siglo de Oro, and it shows just how much those paintings, rather than immutable artworks, were objects with a representative function and could thus be altered depending on the use they were assigned at any given time. The present bust portrait depicts King Philp IV (1605-1665) in the mid 1620s, when he was just over twenty years old. It emphasizes his military responsibilities by presenting him in armor, with the crimson general´s sash across his chest. The lower half of the composition is rather anomalous as the model´s trunk appears excessively constricted by the frame, which impedes a figurative reading. This is unheard of in Velázquez, who was always extraordinarily skilled at fitting his models into the pictorial space. It is explained by the fact that, as a study of its technical characteristics has shown, this is actually a fragment of a larger canvas.
Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva, Philips IV, 1626-1628, oil on canvas, 57 X 44 cm
This is an extraordinary example of the eventful life of many royal portraits during the Siglo de Oro, and it shows just how much those paintings, rather than immutable artworks, were objects with a representative function and could thus be altered depending on the use they were assigned at any given time. The present bust portrait depicts King Philp IV (1605-1665) in the mid 1620s, when he was just over twenty years old. It emphasizes his military responsibilities by presenting him in armor, with the crimson general´s sash across his chest. The lower half of the composition is rather anomalous as the model´s trunk appears excessively constricted by the frame, which impedes a figurative reading. This is unheard of in Velázquez, who was always extraordinarily skilled at fitting his models into the pictorial space. It is explained by the fact that, as a study of its technical characteristics has shown, this is actually a fragment of a larger canvas.