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Infanta Maria Theresa
Workshop of: Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660)
1653
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
128.6 x 100.6 cm (50 5/8 x 39 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Charlotte Nichols Greene in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Nichols
Accession Number21.2593
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
In portraying members of the royal family, Velazquez generally painted bust length portrait from life, which he and his assistants would then use as models to create full-length versions. Intended for potential suitors, this painting is one of three portraits of Princess Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip. She ultimately married Louis XIV of France. The freshness of the pink coloring and brushwork highlight her youth and are evidence that Velazquez was closely involved in its making.
Provenance1653, probably Leopold William (b. 1614 - d. 1662), Archduke of Austria, Brussels and Vienna [see note 1]; 1662, probably by inheritance to Leopold I (b. 1640 - d. 1705), Holy Roman Emperor, Vienna; passed into the Imperial Art Collection, Vienna, which became the Kunsthistorisches Museum (inv. no. 618); 1921, exchanged by the Kunsthistorisches Museum with Hans von Pereira-Arnstein, Vienna; 1921, sold by Pereira-Arnstein to the MFA for $40,000. (Accession Date: December 13, 1921)
NOTES:
[1] Maria Theresa (b. 1638 - d. 1683) was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, to whom Velázquez was the court painter. The king commissioned three portraits of his daughter to be sent to potential suitors. On December 17, 1653, Giacomo Querini, minster of the Venetian Republic at Madrid, reported that portraits of the princess had already been sent to Emperor Ferdinand III in Vienna and Archduke Leopold William in Brussels. It is generally accepted that the MFA portrait was the one sent to Archduke Leopold and that the portrait of Maria Theresa at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, was the one sent to Emperor Ferdinand. See Heinrich Zimmerman, "Zur Ikonographie des Hauses Habsburg," Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 25, no. 4 (1905): 185-190 and Walter W. S. Cook, "Spanish and French Paintings in the Lehman Collection," Art Bulletin 7 (1924): 57-59. A third portrait was sent to Louis XIV, whom the Infanta married in 1660; this is at the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
NOTES:
[1] Maria Theresa (b. 1638 - d. 1683) was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, to whom Velázquez was the court painter. The king commissioned three portraits of his daughter to be sent to potential suitors. On December 17, 1653, Giacomo Querini, minster of the Venetian Republic at Madrid, reported that portraits of the princess had already been sent to Emperor Ferdinand III in Vienna and Archduke Leopold William in Brussels. It is generally accepted that the MFA portrait was the one sent to Archduke Leopold and that the portrait of Maria Theresa at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, was the one sent to Emperor Ferdinand. See Heinrich Zimmerman, "Zur Ikonographie des Hauses Habsburg," Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 25, no. 4 (1905): 185-190 and Walter W. S. Cook, "Spanish and French Paintings in the Lehman Collection," Art Bulletin 7 (1924): 57-59. A third portrait was sent to Louis XIV, whom the Infanta married in 1660; this is at the Musée du Louvre, Paris.