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Margarita was the daughter of Philip IV. In 1673, when she was still only fifteen, she became the wife of Leopold I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. In the last years of his life Velázquez painted the little girl several times; she is the central figure in one of the last great compositions, Las Meninas, produced in 1656. In the Spanish court, which at that time was almost paralysed by the rigid rules of etiquette, this little girl represented the spirit of life itself, a girl whose charm was acknowledged by everyone; even the French ambassador, a man who was very hard to please, praised her in a letter to Louis XIV. She was charming in spite of the fact that she had inherited her father's heavy Habsburg features.
As was the way with monarchs of medieval times, Philip IV made use of Velázquez and his workshop, including Mazo, as a king might today make use of a court photographer. He ordered several variants of the picture, in each one of which the dresses were to be differently coloured. In this painting, which was executed by Mazo, a strange contrast is realized: the little girl's fair tresses and delicate fingers express the carefree existence of a child but the lips already show some of the Habsburg characteristics, the eyes are precocious and sad and the body is stiff, imprisoned by the rigid armour of the stays. On the other hand, the grand dress of green silk and velvet, so unsuitable for a child of nine or ten, has a strange animation of its own, as if to offer the child, in recompense for her loss of freedom, gold threads and grandeur.
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