The Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles is a portrait of Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias on horseback, painted in 1634–35 by Diego Velázquez. It is now in the Prado.

Quick Facts Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles, Artist ...

Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles
Artist	Diego Velázquez
Year	1635
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	209 cm × 173 cm (82 in × 68 in)
Location	Museo del Prado, Madrid

Close

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (March 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Spanish article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:El príncipe Baltasar Carlos a caballo]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|es|El príncipe Baltasar Carlos a caballo}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Velázquez was commissioned to paint a series of equestrian portraits for the Hall of Realms, originally a wing of the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid. This work was meant to fill the gap between two larger equestrian portraits of the prince's parents, Philip IV and Elisabeth of France.

Art historian Andrew Graham Dixon describes the subject as a "little boy on this plump horse, underneath a lowering sky full of dark clouds. The child looks lost."^[1] According to Simona Di Nepi, the young prince's calm demeanor while seated on a rearing horse has a political significance, representing him as a confident horseman and a strong leader.^[2] His authority is symbolized by the baton he holds, the sword he wears, and the military sash on his chest.^[2]

The peculiar thickness of the horse's abdomen may have been calculated by Velázquez to appear normal when the portrait was viewed from below, according to E. Lafuente Ferrari.^[2]

The Wallace Collection also has an equestrian portrait of the prince. This is attributed to the studio of Velázquez.^[3]

• List of works by Diego Velázquez