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

Infanta Margarita

c. 1654
Oil on canvas, 128,5 x 100 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

At the end of the 1640s Velázquez was on the threshold to his late work and the peak of his artistic achievement, to which his likenesses of the Spanish Habsburgs, not least, made a considerable contribution. They are among the finest examples of court portraiture ever painted. This picture represents Infanta Margarita, born on 12 July 1651, daughter of Philip IV and his second wife, Mariana. The Infanta is the central figure of Velázquez's famous composition, Las Meninas, painted three years later.