Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
An equestrian portrait tied to a named day
Most court equestrian portraits are unattached to any occasion: the sitter is mounted because rank is shown that way, not because anything in particular is happening. This one names an event in its own title. Muhlberg was a battle, and by putting the place in the title the picture declares itself an equestrian portrait fastened to a specific military occasion rather than a general statement of rank. The horse's function shifts with it, from ceremonial platform towards campaign mount, though the pictorial machinery is the same.
What the record holds
The catalogue gives 1548 as the date of creation and the Museo del Prado in Madrid as the location. The dimensions are 279 x 332 cm, among the largest in this register, with the wider measurement across. Mannerism and Late Renaissance are the style terms recorded, Italian is the nationality attached to the painter, and the measured colour family of the image is brown. The work is filed under portraiture, male portraiture and Animal Art > Horse.
What is not here
The record carries no commission document, no sitting date and no account of how the picture was received. Statements of that kind are common in the literature on works of this rank; none of them are in this catalogue, and this entry does not borrow them.
Sources
1 references- Peale, Titian Ramsay — Getty ULAN
American painter and naturalist, 1799-1885
