Famous work · not an exact-location map point
Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles
The six-year-old heir to the Spanish throne on a rearing pony, with the real snow-topped Guadarrama mountains behind Madrid.
No single real-world viewpoint
A state equestrian portrait; the Guadarrama range is a conventional portrait backdrop (cf. the already-excluded 'Bonaparte Crossing the Alps').
Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles — at a glance
- Artist
- Diego Velázquez (1599–1660)
- Year
- c. 1635
- Movement
- Spanish Baroque
- Place
- The Sierra de Guadarrama, north-west of Madrid (background)
- Viewpoint
- A studio-posed royal portrait against the real Guadarrama range — now largely a national park
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 209 × 173 cm
- Now at
- Museo del Prado, Madrid
Overview
This equestrian portrait by Diego Velázquez, painted about 1635, shows Balthasar Charles, the only son of King Philip IV of Spain, aged about six, in gilded half-armour with a general's sash and baton, on a fat, rearing chestnut pony. Behind him a wide landscape falls away to a range of blue mountains streaked with snow. It is oil on canvas, about 209 by 173 cm, and it hangs in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.
It was made for the throne room (Hall of Realms) of the new Buen Retiro palace, among a set of royal riding portraits designed to be seen high on the wall — which is why the horse and prince are shown from slightly below.
Where was Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles painted?
Scholarship The mountains behind the prince are the Sierra de Guadarrama, the real range that rises to the north-west of Madrid and is often snow-capped into spring; Velázquez painted its blue, layered profile in several royal portraits from the hunting country around the palaces of El Pardo and the Escorial. It is a real, identifiable range, still there and now largely a national park; the prince and pony, though, are posed in the studio and set against it.
What is in the painting?
The pony rears on its hind legs in profile at the centre, the small armoured prince sitting it easily, baton raised, fair hair under a plumed hat. The ground is bare and brownish; beyond, green-brown foothills, then the pale blue wall of the Guadarrama with snow on the tops, under a sky of soft cloud.
Look closely
The rearing pony
A plump chestnut pony rears in profile, seen slightly from below to suit the painting's high hanging.
The child in armour
Balthasar Charles, about six, in gilt half-armour with a general's sash and raised baton.
The Guadarrama
The pale blue, snow-topped wall of the real range rises beyond the brown foothills.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A profile rearing horse filling the centre, seen slightly from below, against a deep, cool mountain distance.
Scholarship Velázquez sets the plump pony's rearing silhouette against the sky and the far range, the low viewpoint (for the painting's high hanging) exaggerating its bulk. The child rides with unlikely command; the loosely brushed landscape gives air and distance behind the tight foreground group.
History & provenance
The portrait was made for the Buen Retiro palace and passed with the royal collection to the Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Sources
- Museo del Prado, Madrid — collection entry for Diego Velázquez, ‘Prince Balthasar Charles on Horseback’ (c. 1635)
- Parque Nacional de la Sierra de Guadarrama (Spain)
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