Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School

The little rider is Baltasar Carlos, the only son of Philip IV of Spain and, for a while, the whole future of the Habsburg dynasty riding on one child. He is shown around 1636, about seven years old, putting a horse through the levade, a hard dressage move where the animal rears and holds its weight on its hind legs. Behind him is the riding ground of the Buen Retiro, the pleasure palace outside Madrid, with courtiers watching from a balcony. Velazquez was the king's painter, and images like this were court display as much as portraits, a boy already mastering the discipline a king would need. The hope did not hold. Baltasar Carlos died at 16, and Spain never got the reign this picture was rehearsing.