About an unpublished portrait of Prince Don Carlos: intimacy revealed? The challenges of depicting the royal face

Abstract

This article examines the recent identification of a previously unknown portrait of Prince Don Carlos, eldest son of Philip II, attributed to Antonio Ricci and housed at the Real Colegio-Seminario de Corpus Christi in Valencia. Commissioned in 1592 by Juan de Ribera, this work introduces an iconographic singularity by opting for a faithful depiction of the prince’s physical deformities. The notion of intimacy, associated with what escapes the collective gaze, plays a central role in this portrait. Within the framework of royal portraiture, bodily imperfections and deformities were traditionally concealed to uphold the authority and dignity of the sovereign. Thus, far from adhering to the principles of decoro, this work challenges the capacity of portraiture to reveal a dimension of intimacy while simultaneously participating in the strategic staging of royal power in early modern Spain. By exposing this corporeal intimacy, the portrait appears to illustrate a fundamental tension between the social and artistic norms of decorum and the verisimilitude of the model. This study explores the significance and implications of revealing a body that had long been omitted from representation. These deliberate omissions, orchestrated under Philip II, raise critical questions: Was this a strategy to protect dynastic legitimacy and authority, or an act driven by royal modesty, reflecting a complex father-son relationship? Why, twenty-four years after the prince’s death, in a context dominated by the ideals of decorum, was a faithful representation of a physically deformed royal body chosen? By comparing this painting to iconographic, historiographical, and medical sources, this article examines how this portrait embodies a tension between intimacy and public image, between historical fidelity and idealized construction.