Velazquez spent the last decade of his life painting portraits of King Philip IV's royal family as demand increased across Europe. This included portraits of Philip's second wife Marie-Anne depicted as prim and austere, their son Philip Prosper showing dull sadness before his early death, and daughters Maria Theresa and Margarita depicted as pretty yet reflecting their personalities. Velazquez strived to create harmonious and pure paintings during this period until his death.

3. During the last ten years of his life, 1650-1660, Velazquez must meet a large demand for portraits of a royal
family whose avatars was average gradient Europe
and makes creating original works …
Portraits of the second Queen, Marie-Anne, prim and austere in her farthingales, limp and without character.
Portrait of the Infant Philip Prosper, of a dull sadness (the Prince died at four)
Portraits of the ungrateful Maria Theresa and of the pretty Infanta Margarita with chubby cheeks and angelic. And of this he
makes harmonious and pure paintings.

4. Velázquez and the Family of Philip IV
the latest court portraits

7. the last portrait of the King

8. the last portrait of the King by the man who served as his court artist from 1623
The king has no living male heir, is melancholy, preoccupied with death and his salvation; he blames himself for his
conduct, his many bastards, his probable syphilis and his shortcomings as a monarch, the decline of the kingdom
and the exhaustion and decline of this inbred race.
Velázquez, who was probably aware of these vicissitudes, does not want to see any of this: in this last painting he idealizes
once more his King, hides his physical and moral infirmities, his double chin, his wrinkles, his old age and his depression.
Still, Velázquez, during the eight years he has left to live, will not paint the King again (except in Las Meninas) abandoning
his privilege of the monopoly: he lets his assistants make portraits of the ageing king, conform to the royal taste,
but not to his own, as a mark of his anger, his disillusionment with this pre-eminence of the human over the majestic.

9. middle-aged, and tired
this portrait and the one who is in
the National Gallery became the official image
of Philip during the last part of his reign
Diego Velázquez
Felipe IV anciano
Philip IV
Philippe IV
1653
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

13. The King’s pale face stands out against the sombre
black of his clothing and the plain background.
He wears the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Diego Velázquez
Philip IV of Spain
Philippe IV roi d'Espagne
1656
National Gallery, London

16. the two cousins

17. Mariana of Austria
or Maria Anna, the queen consort of her uncle Philip IV of Spain.
The daughter of German Emperor Ferdinand III and Doña María, daughter of the sister of Philip IV, King of Spain.
She married her uncle, Philip IV in 1649.
Only two of their five children survived to adulthood.
Margaret Theresa married her maternal uncle Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.
On 6 November 1661, Mariana gave birth to her last child, later Charles II of Spain.
When Philip died on 17 September 1665, Charles was only three; Mariana was appointed regent, advised by a Regency
Council, until he became a legal adult at the age of 14.

18. a reserved pose …
Mariana was only four years older than her
cousin Maria Teresa,
and both were granddaughters of Philip III.
Shared family origin, but with different
characters
Diego Velázquez
Portrait of Queen Mariana
Portrait de la reine Marie-Anne d'Autriche
1656
Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas

22. a lace handkerchief
bracelets, gold chains and an elaborate brooch
elegant and extravagantly dressed in the height of
contemporary fashion, but with a sulky expression
suffered from "boredom, loneliness, home-sickness
and illness in consequence of her never ending
pregnancies which transformed the lively girl into
an willful, mulish women
Diego Velázquez
Queen Mariana of Austria
La reine Marie-Anne d'Autriche
1652-1653
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

27. Maria Theresa of Spain
Infanta of Spain and Archduchess of Austria and by marriage Queen of France.
Daughter of King Philip IV of Spain and Elisabeth de France, who died when Maria Theresa was six years old.
Half-sister of Margaret Theresa of Spain, future Empress of the Holy Empire, Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias and
Charles II, King of Spain
Her marriage in 1660 to King Louis XIV, her double first cousin, was made with the purpose of ending the lengthy war
between France and Spain.

28. the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain,
María Teresa became the presumptive heir
to the throne in 1646 ...
princely suitors from around Europe were
keen to have a portrait of the young
infanta as she reached marriageable age
this likeness of María Teresa wearing a
wig with butterfly ribbons may have
served as a model for Velázquez's
assistants to copy as they met the
demand for official portraits of the young
princess
In 1660 the infanta married Louis XIV, her
first cousin, becoming queen of France
Diego Velázquez
María Teresa, Infanta of Spain
Le portrait de l'infante Marie-Thérèse d'Espagne
1651-1654
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

31. a majestic pose ...
this portrait is one of the pictures sent to the
courts of Vienna, Paris and Brussels in 1653
when possible matches were being considered
for her.
Eventually, in 1660, she was married to her
cousin the French King Louis XIV.
Preparing for the wedding celebrations was
also a part of court painter Velázquez’s duties ...
Diego Velázquez
María Teresa, Infanta of Spain
L'infante Marie Thérèse
1652-1653
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie

34. a little prince

35. Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias
the first son of Philip IV of Spain and Mariana of Austria.
Philip IV had no male heir and the issue of succession had become a matter of fervent and anxious prayer.
In early 1657, astrologers assured Philip that another child was to be born to him and it would be a boy who would live.
Indeed, at 11:30 in the morning on November 28 of the same year, Mariana of Austria delivered a son.
Philip Prospero had been ill, he suffered from epilepsy and became ill frequently. On November 1, 1661, he died following a
severe epileptic attack.
Five days later, Philip's youngest son and final child, Infante Charles was born. He would ascend the throne in 1665,
following Philip's death.

36. a three-year-old prince
the painting directly admits the little boy's
precarious health:
from strings criss-crossing his chest and
waist hang metal bells and at least two
protective lucky amulets, a cornicello and
on the string across his left shoulder a
black object, likely a fig-hand carved of jet
the impossible hopes of a nation are
depending on a wavering little spirit,
which itself is depending on luck and fate
Diego Velázquez
Portrait of Prince Philip Prospero, Infant Philipp
Prosper
Le Prince Philippe Prosper
1659
Viena, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien,
Gemäldegalerie

41. the princess of Las Meninas

42. Margaret Theresa of Spain
by marriage to Leopold I, Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and
Bohemia.
The daughter of King Philip IV of Spain born from his second marriage with his niece Mariana of Austria
the elder full-sister of Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs
In October 1662, the new Imperial ambassador in the Spanish Kingdom, began one of his main diplomatic assignments,
which was the celebration of the marriage between the Infanta and the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, her maternal uncle
and paternal cousin
On 25 April 1666, the marriage by proxy was finally celebrated in Madrid. On 28 April Margaret traveled from Madrid to
Vienna, accompanied by her personal retinue.
Margaret Theresa is the central figure in the famous Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez.

43. the princess aged three ...
chosen to be the bride of Leopold I,
brother of his mother
for this reason he Spanish court sent her
portraits to Vienna at intervals of two to
three years
Diego Velázquez
Infanta Margareta Teresa in a Peach Dress
L'Infante Marguerite en robe rose
1654
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

47. painted slightly after Las Meninas,
which shows Margaret Theresa in a similar white
dress
one of the paintings sent to Vienna for Leopold I,
Margarita's future husband
Diego Velázquez
Infanta Margareta Teresa in a White and Silver Dress
L'Infante Marguerite en robe blanche, également connue
sous le titre L’Infante Marguerite en blanc et argent
1656
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

50. the infanta at the age of eight and with
a solemn expression
a blue silk dress which is adorned with
silver borders after the Spanish
fashion of the era;
once completed, this painting was sent
to her future husband and Holy Roman
Emperor Leopold I in Vienna to inform
him of his young fiancée’s appearance
Diego Velázquez
Infanta Margarita Teresa in blue dress
L'Infante Marguerite en bleu
ca. 1659
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

54. Las Meninas

55. one of the most famous and enigmatic group portraits of all time
Infanta Margaret Theresa
five-year-old
she is attended by two ladies-in-waiting, or meninas: Isabel de Velasco and María Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor, who
kneels before Margaret Theresa, offering her a drink from a red cup, or búcaro
Velázquez
looking outward past a large canvas
on his chest is the red cross of the Order of Santiago
from the painter's belt hang the symbolic keys of court offices
a mirror
reflects the King Philip IV and Queen Mariana, the royal couple
must be reflecting a detail of the canvas that Velázquez is working on and not the king and queen in person ...
the persons in the picture are looking into a mirror and seeing themselves- the theme is an allegory of portrait painting

56. meninas
a chaperone, a bodyguard
a queen's chamberlain
a dwarf, a Italian child
a mastiff
and
a painter
a infanta
and
a royal couple
Diego Velázquez
Las meninas
Les Ménines
1656
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

63. Las Meninas of Dorset

64. Diego Velázquez, Juan Bautista Martínez del
Mazo
The Family of King Philip IV
La famille de Philippe IV
1660
Kingston Lacy, The Bankes Collection (The
National Trust), Dorset

65. A small painting hidden away in obscurity for over 100 years
but it's not a reproduction of Velázquez's painting by Martínez del Mazo, as historically believed,
nor a modeletto or sketch by Velázquez prior to the painting of the large painting, as some researchers argue
a last research concludes that it is a "pictorial negative" of the large painting:
it is a work initiated by Velázquez and completed by the disciple Martínez del Mazo,
a work to help the Grand Master create one of the most influential portraits in the history of art

69. the disciple of Velázquez

70. a vibrant tribute to the painter of Las Meninas …

71. Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo
The Artist's Family
La famille de l'artiste
1664-1665
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

72. the composition recalls the famous royal family portrait by Velázquez, “Las Meninas” ...
the workshop of the Treasure House, which had been that of Velázquez
in the center, the portrait of Philip IV. ,
present through its reflection in Las Meninas, Mazo chooses to evoke the monarch through one of the portraits of
Velázquez
in the background a workshop scene,
a painter, seen from behind, is standing, brush in hand, looking at the features of the Infanta Margarita. Is it Velázquez?
It is del Mazo painting the Infanta Margarita

76. olga_oes
Velázquez and the Family of Philip IV.,
the latest court portraits
Velázquez et la famille du Philippe IV.,
les derniers portraits de la cour
images and text credit www.
Music ThePianoGuys A Thousandy Years
created olga.e.
thanks for watching

77. the Infanta Marguerite dressed in a heavy and sumptuous pink brocade velvet gown ...
generally considered to be the last work by Velázquez himself and completed by his pupil Juan Bautista del Mazo
recent studies by experts assigns the work entirely to Mazo

78. Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo
Infanta Margarita Teresa in pink dress
Portrait de l’infante Marguerite en robe rose
1663-1665
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado