María Teresa (1638–1683), Infanta of Spain

María Teresa, Infanta of Spain, painted around 1651-1652 and among Velázquez's series of portraits of Philip IV's eldest daughter, documented the princess who would eventually be given to Louis XIV of France as part of the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1660. The young María Teresa is shown in the full elaboration of Spanish royal court dress — the wide farthingale, the stiff fabric, the jewelry — that Velázquez's brush captures with the free atmospheric technique of his late manner. His series of Infanta portraits served a diplomatic function alongside their artistic achievement: these were the images that prospective husbands at foreign courts received as evidence of the Spanish princesses' appearance, making them simultaneously portraits and political instruments.

The silvery tonality of the costume and the cool flesh tones create an image of aristocratic pallor. Velazquez's brushwork is characteristically fluid in the costume while more concentrated in the face, where the young woman's individual features emerge from the standardized court presentation.