Portrait of a Young Girl
Ca. 1660.Not on display
This is the companion to a portrait with similar characteristics that depicts another girl of about the same age with similar features (P1228). The two models may therefore have been sisters. Their dresses, with horizontal necks and open sleeves are characteristic of Spanish clothing from around 1660. As with many other paintings, these were considered works by Velázquez during the 19th century. This can be partially attributed to that century´s relatively scant knowledge of the work of painters in Madrid during the reign of Philip IV, the fashion of the girls´ clothing, the intimate association of Velázquez with portraits of children, and the style of this work and its companion—especially their emphasis on color values. In many areas, including the sleeves, the color is not subject to the drawing, and is instead applied with broad, confident brushstrokes. This type of approach was used at that time to define Velázquez´s painting and to assign him a clear, independent personality that would serve to make him a model for 19th-century artists. As a result, these paintings are reproduced in various 19th-century monographs on Velázquez. In the early 20th century they were praised by scholars as important as the erudite German art historian, Carl Justi, who rejected the then widespread theory that they were of Velázquez´s two daughters, Francisca and Ignacia, a hypothesis that had required them to be dated from the 1620s. During the 19th century the association of anonymous portraits with that painter´s intimate circle affected numerous paintings. But as Justi observed, such an attribution was incompatible with their dresses, which reflect a later style. He further suggested that both paintings may be of the same girl, and that one may have been a sketch or a failed attempt. The first important critical doubts were raised by Aureliano de Beruete, who excluded the two portraits from the list of autograph works by Velázquez in his 1898 monograph. In the catalog directed by Beruete the following year to accompany the opening of the Velázquez room at the Museo del Prado, they are listed as "attributed", which indicated that they differed significantly in quality or style from the artist´s autograph paintings. Over the following decades, their critical status was ambiguous, although they were always associated with Velázquez´s circle or legacy. In 1961, Hernández Perera related them to Juan Carreño de Miranda´s early career, comparing them to works such as Doña Ines de Zúñiga, Countess of Monterrey (Madrid, Fundación Lázaro Galdiano). Ten years later, Angulo suggested José Antolínez (1635-1675) on the basis of the girls´ physical similarities to that painter´s cherubs, as well as technical and stylistic criteria. Contemporaneous sources insisted on his mastery in that field, including Antonio Palomino, who affirmed in 1724 that his portraits were very good likenesses.
