The ''Equestrian Portrait of Margarita of Austria'' is a 1634 portrait of

Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain Margaret of Austria (25 December 1584 – 3 October 1611) was Queen of Spain and Portugal by her marriage to King Philip III & II. Life Margaret was the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria and thus the paternal ...

on horseback by Velázquez, originally shown at the

Hall of Realms The ''Salón de Reinos'' (translated as "Hall of the Kingdoms" or "Hall of Realms") or ''salón grande'' ("great hall") is a 17th-century building in Madrid, originally a wing of the Buen Retiro Palace. The Salón de Reinos and the Casón del Bu ...

of the

Buen Retiro Palace Buen Retiro Palace (Spanish: ''Palacio del Buen Retiro'') in Madrid was a large palace complex designed by the architect Alonso Carbonell (c. 1590–1660) and built on the orders of Philip IV of Spain as a secondary residence and place of recrea ...

in Madrid and now in the

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

History of the work

Velázquez had been commissioned to paint a series of five equestrian portraits of the royal family, Felipe III, his wife Queen Margaret of Austria,

Felipe IV Philip IV ( es, Felipe, pt, Filipe; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered f ...

, his wife Elizabeth of France and their son Baltazar Carlos. This last was smaller than those of the other family members, as it was intended to be hung on a door and therefore viewed from a lower perspective. As with the portrait of her husband, this portrait of Margarita evidences input from Velázquez' workshop. Velázquez retouched the work which his workshop produced, retouching the horse's harness in particular; this was originally very detailed. The same stroke fluidity can be observed in the redone head of the queen, but this process was reversed in the horse's mane and some portions of the landscape in the background, albeit hidden in the underlying technique of the painting. This may be Velázquez' work.

Description of the work

The figure of the queen appears in an ornate dress, adorned with two pieces of jewelry known to belong to the Austrians, the pearl known as " La Peregrina" and the square-cut diamond called "El Estanque". The horse, posed in the 'passage' gait, is facing left, in order to mirror the horse posed in Margarita's husband's portrait, which faces to the right.

External links

''Velázquez ''
exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on this portrait (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Equestrian Portrait Of Margarita Of Austria

Margarita of Austria Margaret of Austria (25 December 1584 – 3 October 1611) was Queen of Spain and Portugal by her marriage to King Philip III & II. Life Margaret was the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria and thus the paternal ...

1634 paintings