The Equestrian portrait of Count-Duke de Olivares is a painting by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, and it was finished in 1634. It is housed in the Museo del Prado (Prado Museum), Madrid.
The subject of the picture is Gaspar Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, Prime Minister of Spain during the reign of Philip IV. The Count-Duke is portrayed riding a horse, an honour generally reserved for monarchs at the time. He wears a plumed headgear and a gilt cuirass, and holds a command baton.
Count-Duke de Olivares
He was born in Rome, where his father was the Spanish ambassador at the time. He inherited the title of count of Olivares, but was created Duke of San Lucar by King Philip IV.
During the life of King Philip III he was appointed to a post in the household of the heir apparent, Philip, by the interest of his maternal uncle Don Baltasar de Zúñiga, who was the head of the prince's establishment. Olivares made a point of acquiring the most complete influence over the young prince.
When Philip IV ascended the throne in 1621, at the age of sixteen, he became a valido — something more than a prime minister, the favourite and alter ego of the king.
For twenty-two years Olivares directed Spain's destiny. It was a period of constant war, and finally of disaster abroad and of rebellion at home. The Spaniards held the favourite responsible for the misfortunes of the country. The count-duke became, and for long remained, in the opinion of his countrymen, the accepted model of a grasping and incapable favourite, though this opinion changed over the centuries.
It would be unjust to blame Olivares alone for the decadence of Spain, which was due to internal causes of long standing. The gross errors of his policy — the renewal of the war with the Netherlands in 1621 (Eighty Years War), the persistence of Spain in taking part in the Thirty Years' War, the lesser wars undertaken in northern Italy, and the entire neglect of all effort to promote the unification of the different states forming the peninsular kingdom — were shared by him with the king, the Church and the commercial classes.
The fall of Olivares was immediately due to the revolts of Portugal and Catalonia in 1640. The king parted with him reluctantly, and only under the pressure of a strong court intrigue headed by Queen Isabel.
sources wikipedia and spiritus-temporis
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