Portrait of Infante Don Luis de Borbon

Portrait of Infante Don Luis de Borbon by Anton Raphael Mengs: As a younger child of King Philip V of Spain, Don Luis received…

What to notice

In Portrait of Infante Don Luis de Borbon, start with classical, portrait, figurative. Then look closely at this museum-described detail: However, his philandering led to losing these titles and banishment from the court, while he became a crucial avant-garde art patron, especially of Goya.

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As a younger child of King Philip V of Spain, Don Luis received important religious posts, including Archbishop of Toledo and Seville. However, his philandering led to losing these titles and banishment from the court, while he became a crucial avant-garde art patron, especially of Goya. The encrustations of medals and cacophonous fabrics speak to Mengs's experiments in representing status, privilege, and royal honors in the age of Enlightenment, when rational skepticism began to confront absolutist, hereditary…