Estimate

30.000 - 50.000

Session

29 November 2011

Hammer Price

Description

Portrait of D.Sebastião
Oil on canvas. 17th century. Anonymous author
Dim: 53x42cm

D. Sebastião (1554-1578?) for his singular life was probably the Portuguese sovereign more often portrayed. Right after his birth António de Holanda depictics the newborn prince in the cradle. In the years to come, during the youth of D. Sebastião, the misadventures of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families that forced the prince’s mother to return home to the Spanish court boosted the necessity of portraits depicting the growth of the young man.
After the king’s mysterious death in Alcácer Quibir – that lead the country to a very delicate position in the european political chess and eventually the Spanish sovereign to take the throne – and the consequent desire for the king to return renewed the wish of having the so-called “Desired King” portrait.
The picture now offered to the market, depicting the king as a young-man after a model painted by Sánchez Coelho taken two years before Alcácer Quibir battle, is an important evidence of that hapless period.

Category

Paintings