Philip IV by Velazquez in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2019

Philip IV (1605–1665), King of Spain
probably 1624


Object Details

Artist: Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez) (Spanish, Seville 1599–1660 Madrid)

Date: probably 1624

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 78 3/4 x 40 1/2 in. (200 x 102.9 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913

Accession Number: 14.40.639


Philip is shown wearing a gold chain and the emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Velázquez was paid for this portrait of the king on December 4, 1624. The artist had arrived in Madrid in the summer of 1623 and was made painter to the king that August. Don García Pérez de Araciel, an important person at court, commissioned the portrait, which is an autograph repetition of the official portrait Velázquez painted for the king (now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid). The 1624 receipt for the painting is also in The Met’s collection (for more information, visit metmuseum.org).


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437873