Philip III

Pedro Antonio Vidal (h.1570-?) Oil on canvas.

Pedro Antonio Vidal, the artist from Castellon who was in the service of the Duke of Lerma and portrayed him on various occasions, depicts here the Spanish king when he was approximately 30 years old, which dates this painting to the years when the Court was residing in Valladolid.Salto de línea This is in fact a half length replica of the portrait by this artist of the king in the Prado Museum (Inv. Nº 1950). Dressed in armour and with a great ruff adorning his neck, the king is wearing on his breast the great collar of the Order of the Toisón de Oro. This reduced version does not show the sword and staff of office which he is holding in the original.Salto de línea The attitude of the sitter here was a normal device in the courtly portraits of the time to transmit both a sense of distancing and of power. The great attention to detail along with a certain mastery of the brush is in the style of Vidal as well as of his contemporaries Bartolomé González or Andrés López.