The ''Portrait of Maria Anna'' is a 1630 portrait of

Maria Anna of Spain , house = Habsburg , father = Philip III of Spain , mother = Margaret of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Linz, Austria , burial_place = Imperial Crypt , ...

by Diego Velázquez. It is now in the

Prado 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 ...

. It was painted during his three-month stay in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

on his return to Spain from Naples. It was made prior to its subject's marriage to Ferdinand III of Austria to be taken to Spain as a reminder of her in her absence for her brother

Philip IV of Spain 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 ...

(since the time of

Charles I of Spain Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain ( Castile and Aragon) fro ...

it had been customary for Spanish kings and their relatives to exchange kinship portraits to show their character to others, to demonstrate their appearance in marriage negotiations or simply to remind each other of their appearance). As in his previous portraits, Velázquez paints his subject against a dark background to make the figure stand out, whilst the green suit, grey

ruff Ruff may refer to: Places *Ruff, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community *Ruff, Washington, United States, an unincorporated community Other uses *Ruff (bird) (''Calidris pugnax'' or ''Philomachus pugnax''), a bird in the wader fami ...

and hair are all realised in minute detail.

External links

''Velázquez ''
exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on this portrait (see index) {{Diego Velázquez Maria Anna Maria Anna 1630 paintings Maria Anna 1630s in Spain Maria Anna