Rubens, Velázquez, and the King of Spain

Analyzing the decorative mythological imagery of the hunting lodge of King Philip IV of Spain, this study illuminates the dialogical nature of a painted program, designed largely by Peter Paul Rubens, and supplemented by Diego Velázquez. Careful examination of surviving images in their broader intellectual context reveals their literary, rhetorical, and philosophical underpinnings, and elucidates the complementary perspectives of these two great artists.