''The Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain'' or ''The Infanta Maria Theresa aged 14'' is a portrait by
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...
of
Maria Theresa of Spain
Maria Theresa of Spain ( es, María Teresa de Austria; french: Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche; 10 September 1638 – 30 July 1683) was Queen of France from 1660 to 1683 as the wife of King Louis XIV. She was born an Infanta of Spain and Portugal a ...
, from 1653, when she was about thirteen years.
[Gállego, 240] It has been cut down at the top and bottom and is now in the
Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...
in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
.
It is considered one of the strongest of artist' late portraits, showing its subject in a majestic pose, illuminated in a light dress against a dark background. Its seriousness and formality is added to by the two watches she carries, whilst the handkerchief in her left hand is one of the painting's highlights.
Velázquez and his assistants created three paintings to be sent to potential husbands for the Infanta (who eventually married
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
).
Two other versions are on display in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
and the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
.
See also
*
List of works by Diego Velázquez
This is a list of paintings and drawings by the 17th-century Spanish artist Diego Velázquez. Velázquez is estimated to have produced between only 110 and 120 known canvases. Among these paintings, however, are many widely known and influential w ...
References
Sources
*''Museo del Prado. Pintura española de los siglos XVI y XVII''. Enrique Lafuente Ferrari. Aguilar S.A. 1964
* Gállego, Julián.
Velázquez'. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; H.N. Abrams, 1989
{{DEFAULTSORT:Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain, The
1653 paintings
Portraits by Diego Velázquez
Portraits of women
17th-century portraits
Louis XIV
Philip IV of Spain
Portraits by Diego Velázquez in the Kunsthistorisches Museum