Charles II

This 1673 portrait of Charles II at the Museo del Prado dates from the year the twelve-year-old king began to be presented more publicly, though the regency of his mother Mariana continued until 1675. Carreño was by this point the established court painter and was developing his approach to the difficult problem of portraying this specific sitter — a king whose physical appearance challenged the conventions of royal portraiture. The 1673 image catches Charles at an awkward transition: no longer the very young child of the 1666 portraits, but not yet the increasingly unwell young adult of the 1680 images. Carreño's genius was to maintain the full ceremonial weight of the Habsburg portrait tradition while allowing the king's actual physiognomy to remain visible — a kind of honest diplomacy that serves both the truth of what the painter saw and the requirements of monarchical representation.

By 1673 Carreño's mature technique was fully established: loose, painterly handling in the costume passages contrasts with more carefully controlled modelling in the face. The influence of Velázquez — dead since 1660 but omnipresent in the Madrid court tradition — is visible in the way paint is applied with visible directness rather than smooth blending. Charles II's physiognomy is rendered without flattery but within the portrait's ceremonial frame.