Philip IV, King of Spain

Philip IV at the Cincinnati Art Museum, dating from around 1655, is a late portrait that shows the king in his final decade. The multiple late portraits of Philip document not only the king's aging but also the evolution of Velazquez's technique toward ever-greater atmospheric dissolution. 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 handling is characteristic of Velazquez's last period — loose, vaporous strokes that seem barely to touch the canvas yet produce a vivid sense of physical presence. The king's face floats in atmospheric darkness, defined by the most minimal of painterly means.