Page 17 - Expotime10_11_2017

Museums of the Mediterranean

the Portrait of Louis XV dressed in pink, a colour associ- elements symbolising and underwriting the necessity of
th
ated with the feminine from the 19 cent. onwards, it is education and emphasising the desirable virtues.
hard not to believe he is a girl.
A significant number of these portraits had a function be-
Around the age of seven, boys were suddenly taken both yond likenesses and imagery. They were often used as we
out of long skirts and the pleasant company of women might use photographs, dispatched from one court to an-
and thrust straight into a man’s world. But even in this other in order to foster a marriage (frequently blood-relat-
masculine place, lace, embroideries, feathers and jew- ed) between the children of the most powerful royal hous-
ellery were nor excluded. es of Europe and thus to strengthen bonds and loyalties.

The precise and minute portrayal of the children’s cos- To a certain extent, this collection is a history of a fami-
tumes delivers to us, accurately, these ravishing imag- ly — the great European family — told through its unions
es of little Princes and Princesses dressed like idols and and alliances. One of the most satisfactory and unex-
covered with amulets and religious medals. These were pected elements in the collection —and one of its joys
supposed to protect them from the innumerable infec- — is that it often gives, as it were, a retrospective view
tious or hereditary diseases against which faith or super- into the future. We see, in some of the these portraits,
stition were the only resort. The belts used to display a depiction of the infant born from the successful union
these relics —“cinturones de lactantes” in Spanish worn of two earlier courtly children whose portraits are also
by the Palafox child (Inv. no. 10) and the Infant Don in the collection. We see into their futures through these
Fernando, Philip IV’s younger brother (Inv. no. 521), are portraits.
perfect illustrations of these practices and beliefs.
The Catholic Church, while ostensibly applying a system
The symbolism of various objects are given remarkable of impediments in marriages and condemning inter-fam-
attention in these portraits and are of great interest. Im- ily unions up to the second degree of consanguinity,
portant emblematic accessories and attributes of power granted a large amount of special dispensation to all
such as sceptres, crowns, thrones, drapes and tables are European courts. It was a process requiring great dip-
shown in detail, but so also are animals, fruits, flowers, lomatic skills and there was little regard for feelings or
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EXPOTIME!, issue October / November 2017