Portrait of the Infante Baltasar Carlos (1629-1646), son of King Philip IV of Spain and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, full-length, in armour with a red sash

Details

Circle of Diego Velázquez (Seville 1599-1660 Madrid)
Portrait of the Infante Baltasar Carlos (1629-1646), son of King Philip IV of Spain and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, full-length, in armour with a red sash
oil on canvas
67¾ x 48½ in. (172.1 x 123.3 cm.)

Provenance

By descent to Maria Ronchi, Bologna, by whom presented to the Cavalieri d’Oro family, circa 1930; Christie’s, London, 2 November 2001, lot 69 (£80,750), when acquired by the late owner.

Literature

A.L. Mayer, Velasquez: A catalogue raisonné of the pictures and drawings, London, 1936, p. 68, no. 286, pl. 109.
J. Lopez-Rey, Velasquez: A catalogue raisonné of his oeuvre, London, 1963, p. 230, no. 31, illustrated, as ‘Workshop of Velasquez, on the basis of photographs’.
P.M. Barbi, L’Opera complete di Velasquez, Milan, 1969, p. 100, no 83D, illustrated.

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Lot Essay

Prince Baltasar Carlos was the only son of Philip IV of Spain by his first marriage, to Elisabeth of France (Isabel de Borbón). Though he only lived until he was 16, when he died of smallpox, he was painted on numerous occasions, sitting to both Velázquez (see for example the notable portraits in the Prado, Madrid, showing him on horseback and in hunting attire) and Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo. August Mayer was the first to propose that the present picture was possibly connected with a lost original by Velázquez, although he does not exclude that it could also be related to a lost Mazo (loc. cit.).

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