Philip IV in black suit

Philip IV in Black Suit, painted around 1625 and among the earliest of Velázquez's royal portraits of the Spanish king, shows him at the beginning of their long working relationship. The young Philip — he was twenty when Velázquez first painted him — is presented in the invariable Spanish court costume of plain black with a simple starched ruff, the monarchy's deliberate rejection of the ostentatious display of other European courts. Velázquez's portrait asserts royal authority through reserve rather than magnificence: the king's dignity comes from his bearing and the quality of Velázquez's observation rather than from elaborate costume or symbolic apparatus. This reticent manner of royal representation was the Spanish tradition he inherited and raised to its highest expression.

The challenge of painting a figure almost entirely in black forces Velazquez to create interest through subtle tonal variations — the black velvet has a different quality from the black silk, and both differ from the shadows that model the form. The face provides the painting's only warm color.