Spanish royal collection

The Spanish royal collection of art was almost entirely built up by the monarchs of the Habsburg family who ruled Spain from 1516 to 1700, and then the Bourbons (1700–1868, with a brief interruption).

[1] In addition, at various periods, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, the monarchs bought paintings abroad on a significant scale, especially in Italy, but also the Spanish Netherlands and France.

In early periods the scattered Spanish possessions included the important artistic centres of Milan, Naples, and the Low Countries.

With the loss of the Low Countries as a result of the Peace of Utrecht, the Spanish crown developed tapestry manufacture in Madrid to avoid the need for imports of these luxury items.

Charles V spent more on tapestries than paintings (like his contemporary Henry VIII), and commissioned them throughout his life, continuing the family tradition, and reflecting common royal preferences at the time.

[8] The largely German collections of Charles' grandfather Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and the earlier Habsburgs mostly remained in Austria and Germany when in 1556 Charles V abdicated and divided his enormous realms between his brother, who became Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his son Philip, who received Spain, the Netherlands and the Habsburg possessions in Italy.

[10] His Equestrian Portrait of Charles V (Prado) set the standard for the genre, influencing later artists such as Anthony van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens, and Francisco Goya.

[15] He took over Charles's key artists, Titian and the Leonis, and commissioned the famous and now dispersed series of mythological paintings known as the poesie, which represent some of his finest late works.

He also began to construct a massive monument to his father and the other Spanish Habsburgs at El Escorial, whose building and decoration was to be the major artistic project of his reign.

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) was brought to the King's attention when still young, after the death of Rodrigo de Villandrando in 1622, and remained in royal service for the rest of his life, also progressing through the hierarchy of courtiers.

He twice persuaded Anton Raphael Mengs (d. 1779), the leading painter of Neoclassicism, the avant-garde movement of the day to leave Rome to visit Spain, which successful artists were traditionally reluctant to do.

Francisco Bayeu y Subías was an assistant to and protege of Mengs from 1763, who was given a job designing for the Royal Tapestry Factory the same year, becoming director in 1777.

Ill-health, changing artistic inspiration and finally the French invasion of 1808 made his work for the court tail off, but his Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800-01) is one of the most admired portraits in the Prado.

In June 1561 Philip II set his court in Madrid, installing it in the Alcázar, which became home to a huge art collection.

Many of the finest paintings from the former Spanish royal collection are housed in the Museo del Prado, Spain's national art museum.

Having been a royal museum (Museo real de pinturas),[18] the Prado was nationalised in 1868 as a consequence of the deposition of Queen Isabella II.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the Prado, the Hall of Realms, a surviving 17th-century wing of the Buen Retiro Palace, is being redeveloped as part of the campus of the museum.

[19] While in theory these paintings could be restored to their original location, this would disrupt the layout of key galleries of the Prado,[20] and other uses are currently envisaged for the Hall of Realms.

Built in order to display material from the royal collections which is in the care of Patrimonio Nacional, the new museum is intended to be complementary to the other two buildings, so that they are arguably comparable to the triangle of art of the Paseo del Prado.

Many paintings were rescued, but the group of important royal portraits by Titian and others in the "Hall of Kings" were mounted on the walls by stucco frames, and could not be taken out in time.

Philip III ordered the room to be reconstituted, with Juan Pantoja de la Cruz set to producing new versions of the paintings from the sources available to him.

[23] The Torre de la Parada, then just north of Madrid, was a large hunting lodge started by Charles V and greatly expanded by Philip IV.