Royal Portraits
4 postsLouis XIV in Coronation Robes
Painting (oil on canvas) · Hyacinthe Rigaud
Painted in 1701, Rigaud's official portrait of Louis XIV is the canonical image of European absolute monarchy at its rhetorical peak. Louis is dressed in the regalia of the coronation ceremony: the bl
The Ambassadors
Painting (oil on oak) · Hans Holbein the Younger
Painted in 1533, Holbein's The Ambassadors depicts the French ambassador Jean de Dinteville and the bishop-diplomat Georges de Selve standing on either side of a two-tiered table loaded with the instr
Portrait of Pope Innocent X
Painting (oil on canvas) · Diego Velázquez
Innocent X did not want the portrait to make him look good. He wanted it to make him look right. Velázquez, who had arrived in Rome in 1649 for his second visit to Italy and stayed nearly two years, u
Las Meninas
Painting (oil on canvas) · Diego Velázquez
The painting is built around an unanswered question, and the question is the painting's actual subject. Velázquez stands behind a large canvas at the left edge of the picture, brush in hand, looking o
