SANCHEZ COELLO, Alonso
(b. 1531, Beifayo, d. 1588, Madrid)

Prince Don Carlos

c. 1558
Oil on canvas, 109 x 95 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Portrait painting flourished in the second half of the sixteenth century in Spain. The portraitist Anthonis Mor (Antonio Moro) was followed by his pupil Alonso Sánchez Coello, who gave a decided impetus to this genre with works of the calibre of his portraits of Philip II and the royal children Don Carlos and Isabella Clara Eugenia. This artist has rightly been praised for his humanity, which, in its intimate relationship to plastic values, makes him the direct precursor of Velázquez portraits.

This portrait depicts Prince Carlos (1545-1568), heir to the Spanish throne and son of Philip II (1556-1598), by his first wife and cousin, Manuela de Portugal (1528-1545). This work idealizes the Prince's face and body when, in fact, he was born with serious physical and psychological malformations that may have been due to his parents' inbreeding. Both his clothing - a cape lined with lynx fur and a yellow jerkin - and his frontal pose help to disguise these characteristics. The figure of Jupiter and an eagle carrying the column of Hercules are visible through a window in the background. These symbols of the Habsburg dynasty alluded to dynastic succession.

This work was cut down at some point, which removed the artist's signature.