Children's portrait in painting schools of Spain at the end of the 16th–17th centuries

The Spanish Golden Age child portrait is traditionally associated with portraits of royal children of the Habsburg dynasty created by the first court portraitists such as Sanchez Coello, Pantoja de la Cruz, Velazquez, etc. However examples of children's noble portraits have survived and complement the overall picture of the development of the tradition of children portraiture in Spain at the end of the 16th- 17th centuries. Representatives of wealthy noble families ordered portraits of their heirs from the leading masters of their city. Most examples of children noble portraits come from the Madrid school of painting. Court artists: Pantoja de la Cruz, Gonzalez, Velazquez, Mazo, Carreno de Miranda, etc., - created portraits of noble children using compositional techniques to represent royal children. Toledo and Seville were also centers for the creation of noble portraits. The artists, on the one hand, took the royal child portrait as a basis, on the other hand, their painting was influenced by the personal style of the leading master of the local painting school. Children portraits created in Madrid were distinguished by a strong increase in the Baroque style throughout the 17th century, while other painting schools maintained a longer connection with the canon of portraiture at the turn of the 16th- 17th centuries. The details of children portraits in all painting schools were the same: flowers as a symbol of children purity, decorative dogs and parrots, amulets and talismans for babies, swords and hats for young men, white lace scarves and jewelry for girls. In addition to personal portraits, there were images of children together with their parents as donors in religious compositions. In such works, children were depicted closer to the center of the composition and the holy image, the heir of the family was next to the head of the family or the figure of the patron saint. In most cases, children portraits of the 16 th- 17 th centuries were of a memorial or votive nature, as a result of which the artist was not faced with the task of creating a sentimental image of a childhood that would appear only in the 18th century. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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