Ferdinand VII in Court Dress

In 1814 Ferdinand VII returned to the Spanish throne once Napoleon's armies had been driven out, and among his first acts was to tear up the liberal constitution and rule as an absolute monarch, soon reviving the Inquisition. Goya was still first painter to the court and had to portray the king he had little reason to admire. He shows Ferdinand loaded with the trappings of power, the ermine-lined purple robe, the sceptre, the golden fleece at his throat, and then paints the face with startling honesty, heavy and wary under a thin, unconvincing smile. X-rays reveal that Goya shifted the pose as he worked, which hints the king actually sat for him. Goya never once flattered those features across the several portraits he made of this ruler.