Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma

The mounted portrait of a favourite

This is an equestrian portrait of a duke rather than of a king, and the format does not soften for the difference. The Duke of Lerma is named in the title and shown mounted, which in this genre is the whole argument: the animal raises the sitter, carries weight he does not have to carry, and is presented as governed. Nothing in the record attaches the picture to a battle, a hunt or a journey. The horse is doing ceremonial work.

What the record holds

The date of creation is given as 1603 and the location as the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The dimensions are 283 x 200 cm, which is nearly three metres in the larger direction. The style recorded is Baroque and the nationality attached to the painter is Flemish. The work is filed under male portraiture, under Animal Art > Horse and under cultural heritage and mythology headings, and the measured colour family of the image is brown.

Why this register groups by function

Sorting these pictures by century puts a ceremonial portrait of 1603 next to a cavalry skirmish of 1614 and calls them neighbours. Sorting them by what the animal is doing puts this one with the other mounted portraits of rank, where its conventions actually belong, and that is how this catalogue reads them.