Diego Velázquez, 'Philip IV hunting Wild Boar (La Tela Real)', probably 1632-7

Philip IV hunting Wild Boar (La Tela Real)

Diego Velázquez

Room 30

About the work

Overview

Philip IV, King of Spain, and his entourage are hunting boar in a forest clearing. The King appears on horseback just right of centre, weapon pointed at a charging boar, accompanied by his first minister and possibly his two brothers. To the far left another boar is being attacked by a pack of dogs.

Boar hunting was an expensive activity and such events were traditionally staged to mark special occasions. A large canvas enclosure – the tela real (‘royal canvas’) – would be erected and wild boar driven into it. Queen Isabella and her companions watch from their carriages.

In the foreground, a crowd enjoys the spectacle of the hunt, though many are not paying attention: a boy in white stares towards us, three noblemen chat and a man loads up a mule.

The painting was commissioned for the King’s hunting lodge, Torre de la Parada, on the outskirts of Madrid.

In-depth

Philip IV, King of Spain, and his entourage are hunting boar in a forest clearing. This was an expensive activity and such events were traditionally staged to mark special occasions or state visits. A large canvas fence or enclosure – the tela real (‘royal canvas’) – would be erected and wild boar driven into it, so that the King could demonstrate his agility in fending them off.

The enclosure fills the centre of the painting and, although our viewpoint is high, we are intended to identify with the spectators on the outside – a boy dressed in white looks out at us. In the arena Philip IV appears on horseback, just right of centre, weapon pointed at a charging boar. He’s accompanied by his first minister, the Count-Duke of Olivares (to his left), and possibly his two brothers, Carlos and Ferdinand, on either side. They are all armed with U-shaped forks called horquillas; a stack of them can be seen leaning against a tree. Over to the left of the arena a boar is being attacked by a pack of dogs. Outside it, three horsemen ride across the sweeping hillside; this is tricky terrain, and they‘d need skill to find boar and manoeuvre them into the valley below.

Philip’s wife, Queen Isabella of Bourbon, and her companions watch from the safety of their carriages, lined up at the edge of the arena. Isabella is probably the lady we can see in the rightmost carriage and the grey-haired man riding a white horse next to her could be Juan Mateos, Master of the Hunt.

In the foreground, a crowd enjoys the spectacle of the hunt, although many are not paying attention: a young man drinks deeply from a jug, three noblemen stand chatting and, on the right, a man is loading up a mule. Velázquez gives prominence to these secondary figures and not to the King, or the main action. He used the same approach in some of his early pictures in Seville, such as his Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of with Martha and Mary.

The back of the picture is inscribed ’Pardo', perhaps suggesting that it was painted for El Pardo, Philip IV’s palace near Madrid, or it might refer to the location of the hunt. In the early eighteenth century the painting hung alongside three other works of equal size by Pieter Snayers, also depicting court hunts (now lost), in the Torre de la Parada, Philip IV’s hunting lodge at El Pardo, for which the paintings were most likely commissioned.

Probably painted in the mid-1630s, it’s the largest of Velázquez’s few landscapes, measuring nearly two metres high and three metres wide. Our collection has several pictures painted by Velázquez for the King, including his bust-length portrait of Philip IV of Spain and full-length image of Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Philip IV hunting Wild Boar (La Tela Real)
Artist: Diego Velázquez
Artist dates: 1599 - 1660
Date made: probably 1632-7
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 182 × 302 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1846
Inventory number: NG197
Location: Room 30
Collection: Main Collection
Commissioners: Philip IV, King of Spain
Previous owners: Henry Wellesley, 1st Baron Cowley
Subjects: Philip IV, King of Spain
Frame: 21st-century Replica Frame

Provenance

Painted for Philip IV, probably for the Torre de la Parada. It was presented by Ferdinand VII to Sir Henry Wellesley (British Minister in Spain, 1811–22; later Baron Cowley) after 1814 and probably before 1818. Exhibited at the British Institution, 1819 (no. 88) and 1838 (no. 6); sold by Lord Cowley to Henry Farrer, from whom it was purchased in 1846.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised by Allan Braham, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School’, London 1988; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2017

Loan to Kingston Lacy (2017)

Kingston Lacy (National Trust)

21 February 2017 - 15 September 2017
2021

Loan to the Spanish Gallery, Auckland Castle

Auckland Castle (The Church Commissioners)

27 September 2021 - 25 April 2022

Bibliography

1634

J. Mateos, Origen y dignidad de la caza, Madrid 1634
1644

A. Martínez de Espinar, Arte de ballestería y montería, Madrid 1644
1853

National Gallery, Report from the Select Committee on the National Gallery, together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, and Index, London 1853
1853

London, National Gallery Archive, NG15/3: Report from the Select Committee on the National Gallery, together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, and Index, 1853
1855

W. Stirling-Maxwell, Velázquez and His Works, London 1855
1896

W. Armstrong, The Art of Velázquez, London 1896
1906

A. de Beruete, Velázquez, London 1906
1925

J. Allende-Salazar, Velazquez: Der Meisters Gemalde in 275 Abbildungen, Berlin 1925
1927

L. Justi, 'Die Landschaften des Velazquez', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XLVIII, 1927, pp. 81-104
1929

L. Justi, 'Das Jagdbild des Velazquez in der Londoner National Gallery', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, L, 1929, pp. 255-9
1936

A. Mayer, Velazquez, London 1936
1943

E.L. Ferrari, The Paintings and Drawings of Velázquez, Oxford 1943
1944

E.L. Ferrari, Velázquez, Barcelona 1944
1952

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, London 1952
1963

E. Callatay, 'De l'influence de Van Alsoot et de la Chasse au Sanglier de Velasquez', Bulletin des Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, XII, 1963, pp. 27-34
1963

E. du G. Trapier, 'Martínez del Mazo, paysagiste', Gazette des beaux-arts, VI, 1963, pp. 293-310
1970

N. MacLaren and A. Braham, The Spanish School, 2nd edn, London 1970
1971

S. Alpers, The Decoration of the Torre de La Parada, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard 9, London 1971
1973

M. Haraszti-Takács, 'Die Anfänge der spanischen Landschaftsmalerei', Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie, XIV/1-4, 1973, pp. 85-99
1982

E. Harris, Velázquez, Oxford 1982
1983

M. Helston, Spanish and Later Italian Paintings, London 1983
1985

J. Ingamells, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Pictures, vol. 1, British, German, Italian, Spanish, London 1985
1986

J. Brown, Velázquez: Painter and Courtier, New Haven 1986
1988

E.L. Ferrari, Velázquez, Geneva 1988
1998

Y. Bottineau, Velázquez, Paris 1998
1999

N. Glendinning, E. Harris and F. Russell, 'Lord Grantham and the Taste for Velázquez the Electrical Eel of the Day', The Burlington Magazine, CXLI/1159, 1999, pp. 598-605
2000

J.M. Pita Andrade and Á. Aterido (eds), Corpus Velazqueño: Documentos y textos, Madrid 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2006

F. Pacheco and A. Palomino, Lives of Velázquez, trans. N.A. Mallory, London 2006
2006

D. Carr (ed.), Velázquez (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 18 October 2006 - 21 January 2007), London 2006
2009

D. Carr, El Greco to Goya: Spanish Painting, London 2009

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

More works by Diego Velázquez

(Showing 6 of 8 works)

Christ contemplated by the Christian Soul

Diego Velázquez

Tied to a column, Christ has collapsed to the floor. His limp body, tilted head and pained expression show his exhaustion and suffering. Velázquez shows the moment after the Flagellation, when Christ was flogged by Roman soldiers – we can see the sticks and whip they used lying in the foreground....

Room 30

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Diego Velázquez

A maid pounds garlic in a mortar, and other ingredients lie scattered on the table: fish, eggs, a shrivelled red pepper and an earthenware jug probably containing olive oil. An older woman points towards her, as if giving her instructions or telling her off for working too hard, or she may be dra...

Room 30

Philip IV of Spain

Diego Velázquez

Velázquez painted many portraits of Philip IV, King of Spain, throughout his reign. This is the last painted image of the King by the man who served as his court artist from 1623. He looks middle-aged, and tired: his sagging flesh and puffy eyes suggest the weight of responsibility resting on his...

Room 30

Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver

Diego Velázquez

Philip IV, King of Spain, was normally shown in fairly sombre clothing, so the unusual splendour of his costume here suggests that this work was made to celebrate something particular. In 1632, he wore a similar outfit for an important ceremony in which the Cortes of Castile pledged an oath of al...

Room 30

Portrait of Archbishop Fernando de Valdés

Diego Velázquez

Fernando de Valdés has an imposing stare. His black cloak – an expanse of plain, heavy fabric – makes him appear larger than he really is, and a matching bishop’s hat indicates his prestigious status within the Church. His clothing and the opulent red curtain trimmed with gold, like the chair on...

Room 30

Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos

Diego Velázquez

On the Greek island of Patmos, Saint John the Evangelist had a vision of the Woman of the Apocalypse, which he recorded in the New Testament Book of Revelation. Here he sits with an oversized book in his lap, his quill pen poised, and looks towards the tiny illuminated female figure hovering in t...

Room 30

The Immaculate Conception

Diego Velázquez

A young woman floats above a landscape, standing on a translucent moon and with a crown of 12 stars. This imagery is based on the New Testament Book of Revelation. In it, Saint John the Evangelist records his vision of the Woman of the Apocalypse, who bears a male child and is threatened by a dra...

Room 30

The Toilet of Venus ('The Rokeby Venus')

Diego Velázquez

Venus, the goddess of love, reclines languidly on her bed, the curve of her body echoed in the sweep of sumptuous satin fabric. The pearly tones of her smooth skin contrast with the rich colours and lively brushstrokes of the curtain and sheets.Venus‘ face is reflected in the mirror held up by he...

Room 30

You've viewed 6 of 8 works