Buen Retiro Palace

Philip IV used to stay occasionally in some rooms annexed to the monastery of San Jerónimo el Real (close to the current location of the Prado Museum, which received the name of the Royal Quarters.

Olivares, with the intention of pleasing the monarch, planned in 1629 and started in 1630 the construction of a series of offices and pavilions as an extension of the Royal Quarters, which ended up forming the Buen Retiro Palace.

The king only used to spend a few days per year, usually in the summer, in his second home, but a large campaign was still carried out to provide the palace with an artistic ornamental level that would match that of the Royal Alcazar of Madrid, his main residence.

Several of these pictures remain in the Prado Museum; some highlights are the landscapes of Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and Gaspard Dughet, Biblical and mythological scenes by Massimo Stanzione and several paintings of ancient Rome by Giovanni Lanfranco, among other artists.

For the Salón de Reinos (royal reception room; until recently the Army Museum) a commemorative series of Spanish military triumphs was commissioned, including Diego Velázquez' famous painting The Surrender of Breda.