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| Artist | Attributed to circle of Coello, Claudio (Spanish painter, 1642-1693) |
| Previous attributions | Previously attributed to Carreño de Miranda, Juan (Spanish painter, 1614-1685) |
| Title | Mariana of Austria, Queen of Spain |
| Date earliest | probably about 1683 |
| Date latest | probably about 1693 |
| Material | oil on canvas |
| Measurements | 104.5 x 84 cm (estimate) |
| Description | The widowed Queen Mariana of Austria wears a nun's habit in this portrait. The custom of adopting this type of dress was well established among the widows of the Habsburg dynasty in Spain. Mariana's husband, King Philip IV, had died in 1665. While the couple's son, the future Charles II, was very young, Mariana acted as Queen Governor of Spain. This painting was previously attributed to Juan Carreño de Miranda, who painted a number of portraits of the Queen as regent working at her desk. However, the rich colouring and free brushstrokes are closer to the style of Claudio Coello. |
| Subject | portrait (Mariana of Austria, Queen of Spain) |
| Collection | Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle |
| Current accession number | B.M.32 |
| Previous accession number(s) | No. 229 |
| Acquisition details | Bequeathed by the founders John and Joséphine Bowes 1885. |
| Provenance | Purchased by John and Joséphine Bowes, possibly through Benjamin Gogué, Paris, from the collection of the late Conde de Quinto, 1862(?), cat. no. 35. |
| Principal exhibitions | Grafton Galleries, 1913 - 1914, cat. no. 165; Spanish Paintings from the Bowes Museum, Agnews, London, 1952, cat. no. 29, as by Juan Carreño de Miranda; El Greco to Goya, National Gallery, London, 1981, cat. no. 104; Spanish Masters, York Art Gallery, 2005 - 2006. |
| Principal publications | Mayer, A. L., 'Die Gemäldesammlung des Bowes Museum zu Barnard Castle', Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, vol. 23, 1912; Mayer, A. L., Geschichte der Spanischen Malerei, Leipzig, 1922; Harris, E., 'Spanish Pictures from the Bowes Museum', The Burlington Magazine, vol. 95, no. 598, 1953, p. 24; Gaya Nuño, J. A., La pintura española fuera de España, Madrid, 1958; Pérez Sánchez, A. E., Carreño, Rizi, Herrera y la Pintura Madrileña de su Tiempo (1650-1700), Madrid, 1986, p. 220; Young, E., Catalogue of Spanish Paintings, Middlesbrough, 1988, pp. 58-59; Sullivan, E., Baroque Painting in Madrid: The Contribution of Claudio Coello with a Catalogue Raisonné of his Works, Columbia, 1986, p. 174. |
| Notes | An inscription on the back 'Salazar' may refer to a former owner. In correspondence (1962), Jutta Held, of the Bayerischen Staatsgemaldesammlungen, suggested that this portrait was made by the workshop of Juan Carreño de Miranda. The attribution to Carreño was supported by Enriqueta Frankfort writing on the 1952 exhibition. However, in her review of the 1986 Spanish Baroque Paintings exhibition in Madrid , Nina Ayala Mallory accepted A. E. Pérez Sánchez's attribution to Claudio Coello. Edward Sullivan did not include this painting in his catalogue raisonné of Claudio Coello. Sullivan refers to Pérez Sánchez's attribution, but he thought that it should be classified 'as a work by an artist in the circle of Coello'. Sullivan also noted the similarities between the Bowes painting and a portrait of Mariana of Austria (about 1689-90, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, cat. no. P91). Mariana of Austria (1634-1696) was the daughter of Ferdinand III of Austria and of Maria, the sister of Philip IV. Mariana was betrothed to prince Baltasar Carlos, but after his death in 1646, she married her uncle Philip IV in 1649. Mariana of Austria's decision to wear a nun’s habit on becoming a widow was common among Habsburg widow queens, such as Margarita of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, 1507-30, who was portrayed by Barend van Orley in this type of mourning dress, and the Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia, portrayed in about 1628 by Anthony Van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens wearing a Franciscan habit. See Anne Marie Jourdan in the exhibition catalogue El Arte en la Corte de los Archiduques Alberto de Austria e Isabel Clara Eugenia, 1598-1633; un Reino Imaginado, Madrid, 1999, p. 82. |
| Rights status | The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham |
| Author | Dr Mercedes Cerón |
