A king and queen in prayer - two portraits from the workshop of Velázquez, circa 1655

 

El rey Felipe IV, orante.

La reina Mariana de Austria, orante.

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Adapted from the Prado website:

These two works mix various aspects of Spanish Baroque portraiture. In principle, the praying figures of Philip IV (1605-1665) and his second wife, Mariana of Austria (1634-1696), take up the tradition of the donor, which dates back to medieval religious painting. The client was incorporated into the sacred image that he commissioned, prostrated in a reverential attitude. His portrait showed his devotion, but also his privileged economic and social situation. However, the supernatural presence has been omitted from these paintings. The sovereigns appear individualized, on a natural scale and with a luxurious background of curtains, as in court portraits. The object of his adoration does not appear in the pictorial space but, presumably, would have been placed between the two, given the symmetrical arrangement of the figures. That is to say, they were part of a scenographic construction in which the painted portraits simulated the constant prayer of the kings before an image. This peculiar mixture of the court portrait and the votive offering can be explained in terms of the devotional uses of the House of Austria and, above all, the place for which they were painted: the monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial. The monastery is the main foundation of the dynasty in Spain, built, among other purposes, to house the family pantheon. On the sides of the main altar of the basilica, two sculptural groups were arranged representing Emperor Charles V, Philip II, and his closest relatives. All of them appear in a prayerful attitude towards the great tabernacle that presides over the altarpiece. The bronze statues, the work of the Leoni, thus represent the Habsburgs' perpetual adoration of the Sacred Form. These groups represent the clearest antecedent for these portraits, although loaded with funerary connotations absent in the paintings. It was precisely Philip IV who completed the factory with the construction of the royal pantheon, inaugurated in 1654. His connection with the Laurentian mass was therefore very close, expanding his actions to the pictorial decoration of the main areas of the building. The sovereign sent some of the most important paintings from the royal collection to the sacristy and chapters, installed there under the supervision of Velázquez. In this environment, it is completely logical that images were conceived that would record the fervor and dedication of Philip IV. Although his creation responds to the artistic context of Escurial in the 1650s, these paintings present numerous unknowns. Thus, the exact place for which they were painted is unknown. Traditionally they are identified with the portraits of Philip IV and Mariana of Austria that were inventoried in the old church of the monastery in 1701. There, from the Velasco interventions, the models that Juan Pantoja de la Cruz painted of the sculptural cenotaphs of the basilica hung, with the that they would be thus twinned. The relationship becomes even closer when remembering that the old church housed the coffins of the Habsburgs until the pantheon was finished, so the funeral and dynastic meaning would become more evident. In the final years of the reign of Philip IV the walls were adorned with new paintings, but no description of the old church at that time records them. Therefore, this location may very well be later. Only one source testifies to the presence of two praying portraits of Philip IV and Mariana of Austria in the monastery, specifically in the chapel of the Virgen del Patrocinio, founded by this king. It seems that they would be two small paintings, still preserved in the monastery, also from the Velázquez circle. But again the information is very late, since it was made known by Antonio Rotondo in the 19th century. By then the original chapel had been dismantled and moved, and very little is known of its primitive appearance. However, the available data and the portraits themselves allow us some minimal conclusions. Firstly, the obvious inspiration in the prototypes created by Velázquez. The effigy of Mariana is directly related to the first official portrait that the painter made of her, which also hung in the palatial area of ​​El Escorial. It repeats the sophisticated attire and hairstyle of the queen, whose infantryman [?] hides behind the kneeler. On the other hand, the image of the king does not correspond so clearly to an original by the master, although the Velasco air is undeniable. The operation of Velázquez's workshop in his final years was problematic, although it is known that Juan Carreño, Francisco Rizi and, of course, his son-in-law, Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, worked with him. However, it cannot be definitively attributed to any of them.