Title of Artwork: “King Charles IV in Hunting Costume”
Artwork by Francisco Goya
Year Created 1799
Summary of King Charles IV in Hunting Costume
Second of two portraits of King Charles IV of Spain by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, Charles IV in Hunting Clothes is an oil on canvas painting. As Charles III’s court painter, Goya was widely regarded as the better political operator of the two men. Even though he was no less intelligent than his father, Carlos IV is generally considered to be a slacker, and as a result, he was outmanoeuvred by Napoleon during a time when he was more preoccupied with hunting and sport than state affairs.
All About King Charles IV in Hunting Costume
In contrast to Goya’s meticulous attention to detail in depicting the royal sash and cloth, the artist’s rendering of the king’s near-portly belly and unsure expression emphasises his own shortcomings. With its “big nosed face, framed in the tricorned hat like the head of an affable turtle poking from its shell” art critic Robert Hughes describes it. Both father and son were depicted by Goya in hunting attire. When Velázquez painted Philip IV as a court painter, he likely saw the portrait and took inspiration for the older man’s outfit. To honour Titian’s Portrait of Charles V, Goya depicted the royal crotch being sniffed by a dog.
In 1780, Goya painted Carlos IV’s father while still a teenager. Charles IV and His Family is widely believed to support the theory that he had little regard for his weakling king, despite the fact that few of his thoughts have been preserved for art historians. There is a hunch that Charles IV is better suited to the role of country gentleman than that of king and supreme authority, as depicted by this portrait.
Information Citations
En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.
