Attributed to Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (Castile 1611 - Madrid 1667)
student and collaborator of Diego Velázquez
Portrait of Charles II, King of Spain, as a child (1661 -1700)
Spain, 1670 c.
Oil on canvas (68 x 49 cm - In antique frame 96 x 75 cm)
Complete details of the work (click HERE)
The analysis of this portrait, and in particular the typology with which its features have been delineated, takes us back to the great tradition of the Spanish school of the 17th century.
It depicts the King of Spain Charles II, at a young age and dressed in a typical Spanish-style dress, the youngest and only male child of Philip IV of Spain and his second wife Maria Anna of Austria, as well as the last of the Habsburg dynasty to govern Spain.
The work takes up the great composition, now in the English Royal Collection, which portrayed the young ruler full-length at the age of four (dated 1665), dressed in a black dress and cloak, and a large feathered hat, presumably shortly after the death of his father Philip IV, to celebrate the young man's accession to the throne and his proclamation as King of Spain. (see photo in details)
URL: https://www.rct.uk/collection/404964/carlos-ii-king-of-spain-as-a-child-1661-1700
He holds a scepter in his left hand and wears the Order of the Golden Fleece, while the hilt of a silver-ornamented sword is visible from his left cuff, increasing the formality and solemnity of the portrait.
The original composition, as well as the proposed one, initially attributed to Veleasquez (Seville 1599 – Madrid 1660), was then placed in the pictorial production of his son-in-law Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, a pupil of Velázquez, and then his collaborator for almost three decades, in the production of court portraits.
The long period of closeness allowed him to fully assimilate the master's style, creating compositions that strongly revealed his direct influence. After Velazquez's death in 1660, Mazo succeeded his father-in-law as court painter to Philip IV of Spain, then to Charles II until his death in 1667.
Our canvas is a replica of the large painting in the Royal Collection, made by Mazo himself in a reduced format, reprising the ruler half-length, presumably as a gift of representation.
Several other similar versions of the composition are known; an anonymous work in the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, in which the child king holds a globe and a scepter but which is otherwise close to the painting in the Royal Collection, and another anonymous version in the Museo del Prado (P002534). In the latter the lying lion is missing and a dog has been added.
EXTRA INFORMATION:
The work is sold with a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic sheet.
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