Portrait of Philip III, King of Spain (1578–1621)

Philip III, King of Spain, is depicted in this Prado portrait painted by Velazquez around 1627 — years after the king's death in 1621. The posthumous portrait, worked up from earlier likenesses by other artists, served to establish visual continuity in the gallery of royal portraits at the Alcazar. Velázquez's uncompromising naturalism and psychological penetration, combined with his revolutionary loose handling of paint in his late work, made him one of the most admired painters in history, his technique anticipating Impressionism and influencing Manet, Sargent, and countless others.

The posthumous nature of the portrait gives it a slightly more formal, less spontaneous quality than Velazquez's portraits from life. The king's features are rendered with careful precision but lack the vivid presence that direct observation brought to Velazquez's best work.