Portrait of Mariana of Austria [SEP] creator
Portrait of Mariana of Austria
Portrait of Mariana of Austria is an oil-on-canvas painting by Diego Velázquez completed c. 1652–53. Dona Mariana (known as Maria Anna) was the daughter of Emperor Ferdinand III and the Infanta Maria Anna of Spain. She was nineteen years old when the painting was completed and had been intended to marry Prince Baltasar Carlos, her first cousin. After he died, his father -her uncle- Philip IV married her to preserve the hegemony of the Habsburg. As such she became Queen consort of
an exchange of works (which also included the "Immaculate Conception of the Venerable Ones" (or "Immaculate Conception of Soult") by Murillo, the twin sphinxes of El Salobral and several pieces of the Treasure of Guarrazar, and the Iberian sculptures of Osuna. In return Spain transferred to France a portrait of Mariana of Austria by Velázquez (the Prado kept another existing version of the portrait, which was considered of superior quality) and a "Portrait of Antonio de Covarrubias" by El Greco. Since 1941, the