Diego Velázquez, 'Philip IV of Spain', about 1656

Philip IV, King of Spain, looks middle-aged, and tired: his sagging flesh and puffy eyes suggest the weight of responsibility resting on his shoulders during his long reign (1621–65), which began when he was only 16. This portrait was painted in about 1656, when Philip was facing particular challenges caused by the ongoing Thirty Years' War. He appears worn down by the loss of family and Spain’s declining political fortunes.

The King’s pale face stands out against the sombre black of his clothing and the plain background. His eyes stare out steadily, with a look that commands respect but is also intensely human. Velázquez has shown him as calm and dignified, his hair arranged in regular waves that frame his face and rest neatly on his collar. He wears the Order of the Golden Fleece, a chivalric order whose pendant took the form of a suspended sheepskin, on the gold chain around his neck. The pendant would have been instantly recognisable to seventeenth-century viewers.

Velázquez painted many portraits of Philip throughout the latter’s reign, and this is the last painted image of the King by the man who served him as court artist from 1623. This work makes an interesting contrast with an earlier, full-length portrait, Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver. The King’s black costume, which he habitually wore and in which he was usually depicted, is less ostentatious than in the other portrait, although he wears the same type of collar, called the golilla, and sports the same distinctive upturned moustache.

Velázquez’s brushwork is free, creating an impression of his subject instead of recording him in minute detail – a style typical of his later works. The form of Philip’s eyes is merely suggested and loose flicks of paint define the highlights on his chain, the gold buttons and the gold embroidery around his sleeves.

Philip seems to have approved of this portrait: many copies were made after it by Velázquez’s pupils, and given as gifts to members of the court and visiting dignitaries. The portrait was also engraved by Pedro Villafranca for the frontispiece of Francisco de los Santos’s Descripción breve de San Lorenzo el Real de El Escorial (1657). In 1658, shortly after painting this portrait, Velázquez was made a Knight of Santiago, an honour he had always desired and which was probably aided by the King’s support.