Maria Terese Infanta of Spain by Velazquez in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2011

María Teresa (1638–1683), Infanta of Spain

Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez) (Spanish, Seville 1599–1660 Madrid)

Date: 1651–54

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: Overall 13 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. (34.3 x 40 cm); original painted surface 12 7/8 x 15 1/8 in. (32.7 x 38.4 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Jules Bache Collection, 1949

Accession Number: 49.7.43

Gallery Label:

The daughter of Philip IV of Spain and of Isabella of Bourbon, María Teresa became heir presumptive to the throne upon the death of her brother, Prince Baltasar Carlos, in 1646; in 1660 she married Louis XIV, her first cousin, and became queen of France. This portrait was painted between 1651 and 1654 and may have been employed by Velázquez's workshop as a model for official portraits of the Infanta. She wears a wig decorated with butterfly ribbons.

The picture was drastically cut down: a copy in the Johnson Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art shows her to the waist.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/1100...