Philip IV, King of Spain

Prepared for battle, this picture presents King Philip IV (1605-1665) of Spain as a model of kingliness and leadership. King Philip wears a highly embroidered red dress with silver decorative pattern. He dons a sword at his waist, holding in his plumed hat in one hand and a military staff in the other.  

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) worked at the court in Madrid where he frequently painted portraits of the Spanish royal family. Many of these portraits were copied by other painters working in Velázquez’s studio. This portrait is a copy of Velázquez’s Fraga Philip, now in the Frick Collection, New York, which was painted in a makeshift studio in Fraga, north-eastern Spain, while the King prepared for battle against the French in 1644. The Dulwich picture is possibly by the painter Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (c. 1612-1667), who was Velázquez’s son-in-law and likely apprentice.