If it's not Baroque, don't fix it.

Gaspar de Crayer (Formerly attributed to Juan Bautista Maíno) 

1. Philip IV in Parade Armor, c. 1628

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

2. Portrait of Philip IV with Two Servants, c. 1627-1632

Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación. Palacio de Viana, Madrid, Spain

“The present image of Philip IV standing in a defiant pose, clad in a striking suit of armor and holding the baton of command, with his left hand at his waist, very close to the sword, immediately brings to mind some of the most important likenesses of the Spanish Habsburgs. It particularly recalls the portraits of Emperor Charles V and King Philip II painted by Titian in the mid sixteenth century, which shaped the most widely disseminated image of the king as the principal defender of the kingdom. The young monarch, interested in establishing ties between his own reign and that of Philip II, purposely sought to revive these images. He is thus powerfully illuminated, standing out against the background of crimson drapes, with an impassive, distant, and serene expression, an embodiment of the virtues of the good governor established in the portraits of the previous century. The presence of the dwarf beside the monarch—here holding the cabasset—was also a convention of court portraiture; indeed, a portrait of Philip as prince, dated 1620 and signed by Rodrigo de Villandrando (c. 1588-1622), shows him with the dwarf Miguel Soplillo (Museo del Prado, P-1234). More novel features—no doubt attributable to the influence of Rubens and Van Dyck—are the outdoor palace setting and background landscape, and, above all, the presence of a lackey beside a white horse.

The combination of various formal references in the present portrait can be explained by its origins. It is listed in the 1637 inventory of the possessions of the Marquis of Leganés as “A portrait of our lord King Philip the fourth armed in gilt armor, a dwarf with the morion, and a lackey of his in livery with a white horse, by the hand of Gaspar de Kraer.” Given that Leganés last traveled to Flanders in 1634, it is possible that he had possessed the painting at least since then. Gaspar de Crayer did not have a chance to paint the monarch from life, as the artist never traveled to Spain. Although it has been posited that he used one of the portraits painted by Rubens as a model, the most reasonable hypothesis is that of Priscilla Muller, who links the work to a miniature on silver of Philip IV in Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, inv. no r2476). The delicately executed Munich portrait is modeled by spotlighting and gentle shading with hardly any transitions, like the present painting in the Palacio de Viana. Although this cannot be categorically affirmed, the execution of the face is more consonant with the method of compositional construction employed by Juan Bautista Maíno (1581-1649), a painter praised by his contemporaries for his small-format portraits, and to whom López-Rey attributed the present work and the version with variants in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.”

Self-Portrait with the Portrait of his Wife, Margaretha van Rees, and their Daughter Maria (1699). Adriaen van der Werff (Dutch, 1659-1722). Oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The hands of Divinity Louis, sends you the crown The scepter, the sword, the law gives to you But it is your virtues and your kindness Which assures you the throne in our hearts