Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, King of England

An equestrian portrait at an unusual size

The convention is familiar — a king shown mounted, the horse supplying height and mass that the sitter does not have to supply himself. What separates this entry from its neighbours in the register is scale. Most of the state equestrian portraits catalogued here run to two or three metres. This record gives 123 x 85 cm, a size that belongs on the wall of a room rather than at the end of a hall. The format is the same; the address to the viewer is not.

What the record holds

The title names Charles I, King of England. The date of creation is 1640 and the location is the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The style term recorded is Baroque and the nationality attached to the painter is Flemish. It is filed under portraiture, under male portraiture, under a cultural heritage heading and under Animal Art > Horse. The measured colour family of the image is brown.

A note on locations in this register

A location recorded here is a statement about the last published source, not a claim about where a picture hangs this morning. For a work in a major national collection that statement is generally stable. It is still a record of a record, and it is worth reading as one.