Philip the Handsome (1478-1506)

Juan de Flandes painted this portrait of Philip the Handsome around 1500 during his service at the Castilian-Burgundian court. Philip's marriage to Juana of Castile united the Habsburg and Trastámara dynasties, creating the foundation of the Spanish Habsburg empire. The portrait documents the young prince whose early death in 1506 would trigger his wife's legendary madness. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique.

Oil on panel with Juan de Flandes's characteristic miniaturist precision and luminous palette. The formal portrait captures Philip's youthful features with the Netherlandish exactitude appropriate to dynastic documentation.