Charles II as a child
Ca. 1675. Oil.On display elsewhere
Charles II stands in the Alcázar Palace’s Hall of Mirrors alongside a porphyry table held up by two of Mateo Bonuccelli’s gilded bronze lions. The monarch is dressed in black silk, as was customary in royal portraits of the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty since the time of Philip II. He wears the Golden Fleece on a necklace and has a sword on his belt. He holds a folded report in his right hand, and his left, which grasps a hat with black plumes, rests on a buffet. He has a traditional ruff collar around his neck. His long, straight blond hair is parted in the middle. A large porphyry urn rests on the table behind him and two mirrors with ebony frames and gilded-bronze eagles facing each other, hang on the walls at the same height. The lower part of a painting is visible on the wall above them. The mirrors reflect the back of the king’s head and the room’s opposite wall, decorated with various canvases, and a partially open door. The mirror that reflects the king’s head includes Titian’s Tityus and Rubens’ 1628 Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV, lost in the Alcázar fire but known through its copy at the Galleria degli Uffizi. The red-and-white tile floor and mirror help to expand the perspective. The composition is framed by a large red curtain on the left, with an embroidered gold edge and a thick cord with a large tassel.
While the prototype is the canvas at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, which dates from 1671, the present work has some variants: the king’s face is older, his hair is parted in the middle, and the Golden Fleece hangs from a necklace, rather than a button. The monarch is also closer to the viewer, and this led A. Pascual Chenel to date it from around 1675.
