Felipe IV cazador

Velázquez painted Philip IV in hunting dress for the Torre de la Parada, the king's shooting lodge in the hills outside Madrid, around 1634. The famous version hangs in the Prado, but this canvas in Castres is a copy made in Velázquez's own workshop, and it turns out to be useful. X-rays of the Prado picture show the king was reshaped as Velázquez worked. His head was once bare, the long gun was longer still, and his leg sat further to the right. This copy seems to preserve that earlier layout, before the changes were made. So a viewer here is looking, in effect, at Philip as he first appeared on the easel, the dog at his side, waiting in the cold light of the sierra.