Portrait of Elisabeth of Bourbon, Queen of Spain (1632, Met-Objekt 1334)
Original title: Portrait of Elisabeth of Bourbon, Queen of Spain
kurzbeschreibung
In 1632 Paulus Pontius engraved this portrait of Elisabeth of Bourbon, who shared the Spanish throne as the wife of Philip IV. The print presents the queen in half-length, her costly garments and jewellery underlining her rank. What survives is the first of two states, trimmed.
Description
Elisabeth of Bourbon sits at the centre, set off by a plain ground with a cloth curtain. Over an elaborately ornamented gown with intricate buttons falls a striking pearl necklace; her hair is dressed in a twisted style with pearls. Face and upper body carry the weight of the image, lit evenly. An explanatory inscription runs along the bottom.
Context
The sheet dates from 1632, a year when Elisabeth of Bourbon (1602–1644) wore the crown of Spain as the wife of Philip IV. Paulus Pontius, a Flemish engraver, often worked after designs by Peter Paul Rubens. The portrait was meant to make the monarch known among the European nobility and to serve courtly representation.
Impact
The print gives off a solemn, magnificent mood in which royal dignity becomes palpable. Fabrics and jewellery are rendered so precisely that their surfaces seem almost touchable. Because the light falls evenly and the arrangement stays calm, the portrait keeps a dignified distance.
Technique
For the engraving, lines were cut into a copper plate. Without colour, the image works with fine hatching to draw out light and dark. The first state of the print reproduces the plate before later alterations were made.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)