Portrait of Philip 11
Attributed to Titian - Unknown location or no longer extant.
The “Original Picture of Phillip the 2d: King of Spaine at full length laying his hand upon Fame by ------ʺ in the “Drawing Roome belonging to her Grace” at Holyroodhouse in 1704 deserves far more attention than it has received over the last 200 years.
It was probably the “No: 1 A King of Spaine at Length in A Gilded frame” recorded as the first item on a list of “Pictures packed up in the Great Case” on 10 July 1699 (M4/39/p. 1). The diverse contents of this crate, which included maps and swords, suggest that it was one of the consignments that the 4th Duke of Hamilton shipped up to Scotland from London during the 1690s.
Regarded as a “Titian” from at least the 1750s it is unfortunate that this complex allegorical portrait, which seems to be related to Titian’s painting of Philip II after the Battle of Lepanto offering his son Prince Ferdinand to Victory, of 1573-75 (Museo del Prado, Madrid), is either languishing in an unknown location or no longer extant. At the time of the 1882 Hamilton Palace sale, Christie, Manson and Woods catalogued it as a full-length portrait by Titian, measuring 6 feet 3 inches by 5 feet 5 inches, which depicted the king in “black dress and hat, with white ruff and cuffs”, with a “figure of Fame kneeling before him (Hamilton Palace sale, 1 July 1882, lot 765). According to the catalogue, either the king or the figure of Fame was “wearing a badge inscribed “Philippus II., Secundus Hispaniarum Rex,” and jewelled ornaments with [the] monogram R. S. V. frequently repeated”. On the right, the “royal insignia and order of the Golden Fleece [were] suspended from a sculptured pedestal”.
Additional snippets of information include the travel-writer Thomas Pennant’s remark that the “strange figure of Fame bowing at [Philip II”s] feet” was painted “with a label” bearing the “motto” “Pro merente adsto” (A Tour in Scotland; MDCCLXIX (Warrington, 1774), p. 236); Dr Samuel Spiker’s belief that the king was represented “with America, as a female slave lying at his feet” (Travels through England, Wales, and Scotland, in the year 1816 (London, 1820), I, p. 248); and the significant fact, noted by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, that the action took place “at the entrance to a temple” (Titian: His Life and Times (London, 1877), II, pp. 468-69).
In 1759 the portrait was hanging in the Billiard Room of Hamilton Palace, and was listed as painting number 217, “An Original picture of Philip the 2d. of Spain laying his hands on fame A full length by Titian” (M/4/48, p. 16). There must have been major reservations about the quality of the work – and possibly also its condition – because it was valued at only £3 in 1759. It is also disquieting to find that Philip II was in the Stewards Room in 1793 and that it seems to have still been there when the inventory was checked in 1799 (M/4/51, p. 23).
Despite this, the 10th Duke of Hamilton included Philip II in his picture gallery-cum-treasury in the five Old State Rooms on the first floor of the west wing of the old baroque palace. Between about 1810 and 1835 the painting was shown in the second of the so-called dressing rooms at the far end of the Old State Rooms. However, towards the end of his life the Duke moved it to the first of the Old State Rooms, the Breakfast Room, which was directly off the famous 120-foot Long Gallery. Here the “Titian” of Philip II was added to Signorelli’s Circumcision of Christ and Pontormo’s Joseph with Jacob in Egypt (both National Gallery, London) and other important works (Volume 1228, p. 140) to create an even more impressive initial display.
It would be left to Dr Gustav Waagen, in 1854, to comment on the poor condition of the painting and observe that it appeared to be “too feeble” for Titian (Treasures of Art in Great Britain (London, 1854), III, p. 299), and to Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in 1877, to demote it with the damning observations: “This canvas […] seems to have been executed by a German or Fleming who had some personal intercourse with Titian. The forms are too poor and slender, the drawing and modelling are too trivial, for the great master, the colour too liquid and thin. Profuse ornament reveals a taste foreign to the Venetian school.”
Needless to say, the Virtual Hamilton Palace Trust would very much like to discover more about the composition and authorship of this remarkable and intriguing ‘lost work’, which was sold to Colnaghi’s for £110 5 shillings in 1882.
