VELÁZQUEZ, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y
(b. 1599, Sevilla, d. 1660, Madrid)

Portrait of Philip IV of Spain on Horseback

c. 1635
Oil on canvas, 126 x 93 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

Velázquez sent this painting to Florence for a statue to be cast in bronze by Pietro Tacca, who had inherited the workshop of Cosimo I and Eleonora's sculptor Giambologna. In the painting, the slope behind the rider and his mount suggests a support for the nine-ton statue. Tacca, however, achieved the feat of a free-standing high-rearing horse.