Portrait of Ferdinand VI as a Boy

Jean Ranc painted this portrait of the young Ferdinand VI of Spain around 1723, showing the future king as a child of perhaps nine years. Ferdinand, son of Philip V and his first wife Maria Luisa of Savoy, would succeed his father and reign from 1746 to 1759. Ranc was a French painter who had been invited to the Spanish court by Philip V following the establishment of the Bourbon dynasty, bringing French portrait conventions to Madrid that would transform Spanish court painting. He served as principal French portrait painter at the Spanish Bourbon court, and his images of the royal family established the visual identity of the new dynasty for its Spanish subjects. His ability to render the formal dignity required by court portraiture while conveying the physical reality of his child sitters demonstrates the technical mastery that made him indispensable to the Spanish Bourbons. The portrait is now held at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, which preserves the remarkable visual record of the Spanish Bourbon court that Ranc and his colleagues helped create.

Ranc renders the royal child with the formal dignity required by Spanish court portraiture conventions. The careful rendering of the child's elaborate costume and the rich setting demonstrate his mastery of the French court portrait tradition adapted to Spanish tastes.