Образы инфантов в контексте испанских дворцовых интерьеров XVI‒XVII веков

The images of children in Western European art have been the subject of researchers’ attention for several decades. With increased interest to Italian and Dutch works, the images created in Spain, however, remained little studied especially in the context of their location. The article analyzes the depictions of royal family children, infants, and princes set in the Spanish palace interiors of the 16th‒17th centuries. Before the 16th century, such portraits were not in existence. During the second part of the 17th century, King Carlos II, who had no children, was depicted in portraits only as a child king. The method of the source analysis has been applied to the Royal Alcazar inventory. It became clear that there was no gallery of the royal family members’ portraits, in the context of which children’s portraits would have been presented, within the front part of the palace interiors in the Alcazar. Information is available on the placement of the portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Royal Hall of the Buen Retiro. The comparison with the Old Portrait gallery of El Pardo (Philipp II) and the New Portrait gallery of El Pardo (Philipp III) shows that Philip IV appears closer to Philip II than to Philip III in the strategy of arranging and commissioning portraits. It is plausible that this was in connection with the domination of matrimonial strategy in the making of infant portraits. The study was supported by a project from the Russian Science Foundation № 23-28-00061, https://rscf.ru/project/23-28-00061/