A child’s soft giggle echoes down the palace hall. Heavy skirts rustle. A lady-in-waiting enters and holds the door of the Cuarto del Principe (“Prince’s Room”) in the Alcázar Palace in Madrid, Spain.
In comes a 5-year-old child, royal to be sure, to the spacious studio of the court’s chief painter, the eminent Diego Velázquez (1599–1660).
Like any palace of a 17th-century monarch, the court of Philip IV bustled with activity and his court painter was part of this. In his most famous painting, Velázquez depicted an informal family scene that was sure to please his king.
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