Alfonso XII
Artist: Federico De Madrazo y Kuntz (Spanish, 1815-1894)
Date: 1886
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
Description
This is a posthumous portrait of the monarch. He appears standing, in full-length, and dressed in a simple captain-general's uniform, upon which he bears the grand laureate cross and sash of the military order of San Fernando (Saint Ferdinand), as well as the decorations of the Golden Fleece hanging from his collar and a cummerbund and a saber girdle around his waist. He poses inside a palatial hall, on a rich carpet, resting his hand on one of the splendid hard-stone tables kept in the Museo del Prado , on which we see the command baton and the feathered helmet of his uniform. In the shadows of the sumptuous architecture in the background, there is a niche with a statue of a medieval monarch – probably King Alfonso X the Wise, the immediate nominal predecessor of the monarch – and a medallion with the effigy of King Charles V.
Federico de Madrazo had already painted portraits of Alfonso XII on several occasions throughout the king's lifetime, according to the records in his inventory. However, this portrait was commissioned from the painter in 1886, the year following the king's death. It was intended for the Ministry of Public Works, which back then was home to the Contemporary Section of the Museo del Prado . It was immediately transferred to the Museum, probably with the purpose of being integrated within the Chronological Series of the Kings of Spain, a project initiated by José de Madrazo.
