Portrait of Philip IV of Spain on horseback

This mounted king goes back to a painting that no longer exists. Rubens made an equestrian portrait of Philip IV of Spain during his stay in Madrid in 1628, and that canvas was lost in a later palace fire, leaving copies and variants like this one to carry its design forward. The version in the Uffizi is usually given to Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo, who was Velazquez's son-in-law and took over from him as court painter, though some catalogues place it closer to Velazquez's own workshop and leave the hand open. By 1663 Philip was near 60 and worn by decades of war and loss, a very different man from the confident rider Rubens had first set on horseback.