Gaspar de Crayer painted several portraits of Philip IV, probably commissioned by the Marqués de Leganés, who served as Philip’s emissary to the Spanish court in Brussels in 1627–28. Here the young king of Spain is presented in a magnificently decorated Flemish cavalry armor. He holds a commander’s baton in his right hand and wears an ornate rapier on his left hip. The composition follows a pattern in Spanish portraiture of depicting kings in fine armor, which was established decades earlier by Titian, for example in his portraits of Emperor Charles V and King Philip II.
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Title:Philip IV (1605–1665) in Parade Armor
Artist:Gaspar de Crayer (Flemish, 1584–1669)
Date:ca. 1628
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:72 x 46 1/2 in. (182.9 x 118.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Helen Hay Whitney, 1944
Accession Number:45.128.14
Helen Hay (Mrs. Payne) Whitney, New York (until d. 1944; as "Portrait of a King" in the Manner of Zuchero, pendant to 45.128.15)
Madrid. Museo Nacional del Prado. "Juan Bautista Maíno, 1581–1649," October 20, 2009–January 17, 2010, no cat. number.
Musée du Louvre-Lens. "L'Europe de Rubens," May 22–September 23, 2013, no. 44.
Mexico City. Museo Nacional de Arte. "Yo, el Rey: La monarquía hispánica en el arte," July 1–October 18, 2015, no. 74.
Paris. Musée du Luxembourg. "Rubens: portraits princiers," October 4, 2017–January 14, 2018, no. 24.
Cassel. Musée de Flandre. "Entre Rubens et Van Dyck, Gaspar de Crayer," June 30–November 4, 2018, no. 3.8.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 99.
José López-Rey. "Maino y Velázquez, dos retratos de Felipe IV en el Metropolitan Museum de Nueva York." Colóquio no. 25 (1963), pp. 15–18, attributes it to Maino.
José López-Rey. "A Portrait of Philip IV by Juan Bautista Maino." Art Bulletin 45 (1963), pp. 361–63, fig. 1.
Shirley Sanford. Letter. February 14, 1964 [see old catalogue card], attributes it to Maino.
Matías Díaz Padrón. "Gaspar de Crayer un pintor de retratos de los Austria." Archivo español de arte 38 (1965), pp. 238–39, fig. 3, attributes it to de Crayer.
José López-Rey. "Sobre la atribución de un retrato de Felipe IV a Gaspar de Crayer." Archivo español de arte 39 (1966), pp. 195–96.
Hans Vlieghe. "Caspar de Crayer als Bildnismaler, seine Entwicklung bis etwa 1630." Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, n.s., 27 (1967), pp. 99–101, fig. 91, supports the attribution to de Crayer.
José López-Rey. Velázquez' Work and World. London, 1968, p. 42, pl. 37, as by Maino; dates it 1623–24, and calls the painting in the Palacio de Viana a mediocre imitation of it.
Diego Angulo Iñiguez and Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez. Historia de la pintura española: Escuela madrileña del primer tercio del siglo XVII. Madrid, 1969, p. 321, as by Maino.
Hans Vlieghe. Gaspar de Crayer, sa vie et ses oeuvres. Brussels, 1972, vol. 1, pp. 258–59, no. A259; vol. 2, fig. 236.
Priscilla E. Muller. "Maino, Crayer, Velázquez and a Miniature of Philip IV." Art Bulletin 58 (March 1978), pp. 87–89, fig. 3.
José López-Rey. Velázquez: The Artist as a Maker, with a Catalogue Raisonné of His Extant Works. Lausanne, 1979, pp. 32, 158–59 n. 64, pl. 15, as by Maino, painted after January 1623.
Julián Gállego. Diego Velázquez. Barcelona, 1983, p. 55, as by Maino.
Walter A. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 32–34; vol. 2, pl. 17, suggests that this version of the portrait may be earlier than the one in the Palacio Viana, Madrid.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 283, ill., as "Philip IV (1605–1665) in Parade Armor".
Leticia Ruiz Gómez. E-mails to Keith Christiansen. April 1 and April 3, 2009, reconsiders her attribution of this painting to Maino [Ref. 2006] and restores it to de Crayer, noting that he had a moment in the 1620s in which his style was quite close to that of Maino.
Alfonso Rodríguez G. de Ceballos inJuan Bautista Maíno, 1581–1649. Ed. Leticia Ruiz Gómez. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2009, pp. 190, 213, 307, fig. 34.8 (color).
Leticia Ruiz Gómez inJuan Bautista Maíno, 1581–1649. Ed. Leticia Ruiz Gómez. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2009, pp. 197–98, 309–10, fig. 37.1 (color detail).
Peter Cherry. "Juan Bautista Maíno." Burlington Magazine 152 (February 2010), p. 134.
Marc Fumaroli inL'Europe de Rubens. Ed. Blaise Ducos. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre-Lens. Paris, 2013, p. 38.
Jahel Sanzsalazar inL'Europe de Rubens. Ed. Blaise Ducos. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre-Lens. Paris, 2013, p. 327, no. 44, fig. 143 (color), ill. p. 90 (color), as by Gaspar de Crayer; dates it about 1627–28.
Abraham Villavicencio García et al. La monarquía hispánica en el arte. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional de Arte. Mexico City, 2015, pp. 309, 374, no. 74, ill. pp. 5, 137 (color, overall and detail), as Attributed to Gaspar de Crayer.
Alexis Merle du Bourg inRubens: portraits princiers. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg. Paris, 2017, pp. 132, 217, no. 24, ill. pp. 118–19, 133 (color, overall and detail).
Carole Blumenfeld. "Le Portrait de Philippe IV d'Espagne par Gaspar de Crayer." La Gazette Drouot no. 31 (September 14, 2018), p. 180, ill. p. 181 (color).
Alexis Merle du Bourg inEntre Rubens et Van Dyck, Gaspar de Crayer. Exh. cat., Musée de Flandre. Ghent, 2018, pp. 82, 84, no. 3.8, ill. p. 85 (color).
Hannah Korn inJewelry: The Body Transformed. Ed. Melanie Holcomb. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2018, p. 258 n. 1.
Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, Antwerp 1599–1641 London)
ca. 1622
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