Follower of Diego Velázquez
The story
A follower is a painter who worked in Velázquez's manner, close to his workshop or at least to his moment, without reproducing any one of his pictures. In the Alte Pinakothek in Munich this name is attached to a half-length portrait of Philip IV of Spain, which the Bavarian catalogue does not give to Velázquez himself.
Portraits of that king were produced in quantity. Velázquez's studio and other hands supplied versions for embassies, ministers and distant palaces, because the king's face had to be present in rooms the king would never enter. The Munich canvas is 86 by 64 centimetres, came into the Bavarian collection from Schloss Dachau outside Munich, and is not currently on display.
