Sebastián Herrera Barnuevo

SEBASTIÁN HERRERA BARNUEVO (Madrid, 1619-1671).
"Portrait of Charles II.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Work reproduced in: Pascual Chenel, A. Semblantes. Caja Segovia, Segovia 2011.
It presents restorations on the pictorial surface and patches in the back area.
It has a 19th century frame with slight flaws.
Measurements: 207 x 139 cm; 218 x 150 cm (frame).
The work has a sumptuous open background where a profuse and delicate landscape can be appreciated. In the center of the scene a child figure stands, looking confidently at the viewer, dressed in a magnificent costume in white, gray and ocher tones, with abundant embroidery, and a wide-brimmed hat, black, with feathers, in one hand and the general's flare alluding to military power in the other. In the lower left corner a lion, symbol of the monarchy, is reclining, embracing with one of its claws an orb surrounded by a laurel wreath. To the right of the protagonist, a table holds the cushion on which the royal crown is placed, which, although in the background, stands out not only physically but also symbolically. Above the monarch a cherub holds a border with the name of the protagonist, thus showing the link between the King and the divine. Charles II would appear portrayed at about 9 years of age (he was king from the age of 4, hence the relative abundance of child portraits of this monarch), having been made between 1669 and 1670, presented as an exaltation of the Hispanic monarchy. The aesthetic and compositional characteristics of the work show that the authorship is due to a court painter of the Madrid school of the second half of the seventeenth century. Specifically Sebastián de Herrera Barnuevo, creator of the prototype portrait of this monarch at this age. In fact, this similarity can be observed through a work made by the hands of the master preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid, as well as another very similar one in the Hermitage of St. Petersburg.
Sebastián de Herrera Barnuevo was a very important architect, sculptor and painter in the Spanish Baroque period. He began his artistic training at the hand of his father, the sculptor Antonio de Herrera, and in the workshop of Alonso Cano. His fame would come from the hand of numerous commissions, standing out in all the fields he worked: his design of gardens and fountains of the Royal Site of Aranjuez in Madrid in 1660 brought him the appointment as the Royal Household's Help of Fuerriera, and he was also Major Butler of the Royal Works from 1662, obtaining the position of Chamber Painter of Charles II after the death of Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo for his portraits, and, later and before his death, the position of Concierge of the Royal Monastery of El Escorial in 1671. In addition to the architectural works of the master, a series of paintings are preserved, some in important private collections, especially in Spain, and others in prominent institutions such as the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Museum of Cadiz, designs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Cordoba, a drawing and an oil painting of Charles II in the Lazaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid, in the Louvre Museum in Paris, etc.