Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
A state portrait in which the horse does the lifting
The equestrian state portrait exists for one reason before any other: it raises a man above the eye level of everyone looking at him. The sitter does not have to do anything. The animal supplies the height, the bulk and the implied control, and the rider's part is to appear untroubled by all three. This is one of those pictures. The title names Philip IV, the record files it under male portraiture and under Animal Art > Horse, and no hunt, battle or piece of work is attached to it. The horse is here as an instrument of rank.
What the record holds
The catalogue gives 1635 as the date of creation and the Museo del Prado in Madrid as the location. The dimensions are 314 x 301 cm, which puts it among the largest works in this register and close to square: a canvas made for a wall built around it rather than for a cabinet. Baroque is the recorded style, Spanish the nationality, and the measured colour family of the image is blue.
What a pose like this is evidence of
Court equestrian portraiture drew on a fixed repertoire of poses, taken from riding manuals and from antique bronzes, and a painter chose from that repertoire rather than from an afternoon's observation. What such a picture reliably records is the claim being made about the sitter. It is not evidence of how any particular animal moved.
Sources
7 references- Diego Velázquez — Wikipedia
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptised 6 June 1599 – 6 August 1660) was a Spanish Baroque painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He is generally considered on
- Velázquez, Diego — Getty ULAN
Spanish painter, 1599-1660
- Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV — Wikipedia
The Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV was a portrait of Philip IV of Spain on horseback, painted by Diego Velázquez in 1635–36 as part of a series of equestrian portraits for the Hall of Realms, originally a wing of the Buen Retiro Palace in
- Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV — Wikidata
description: painting by Diego Velázquez; inception: 1634; dimensions: 303 × 317 cm; collection: Museo del Prado
- museodelprado.es — record for "Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV"
Primary source record for this work (museodelprado.es).
- museodelprado.es — record for "Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV"
Primary source record for this work (museodelprado.es).
- jstor.org — reference for "Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV"
Authoritative source for this work (jstor.org).
