Meeting on the Isle of Pheasants

The Meeting on the Isle of Pheasants on 7 June 1660 was part of the process ending the Franco-Spanish War (1635–59); the Spanish princess Maria Theresa of Spain entered France for her marriage to Louis XIV, and said goodbye to her father Philip IV of Spain and much of the Spanish court.

Those present included, from Spain, Maria Theresa, the Count-Duke of Olivares, chief minister, as well as one of the organisers of the meeting, and the painter Diego Velázquez, who was then sixty years of age.

On the French side, there was the widowed queen Anne of Austria, sister of King Philip and mother of Louis XIV, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and Cardinal Mazarin, the chief minister.

[1][2] The meeting was later (by about 1660) depicted in a tapestry in a series on the life of Louis XIV, designed by Charles Le Brun, an example of which is in the Palace of Versailles.

[1][3] This composition was later copied in oils by Jacques Laumosnier (Musée de Tessé, Le Mans).