The reign of Philip IV of Spain, which lasted from 1621 to 1665, marked a period of literary and artistic flourishing, supported and promoted by the king, a cultured man and patron of major figures such as Diego Velázquez, Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Quevedo and Góngora.However, the ‘Golden Age’ occurred alongside successive financial and political crises, internal revolts and military setbacks, which heralded the decline of the Spanish Empire's global hegemony. Nicknamed ‘El Rey Planeta’ (The Planet King), but also ‘The Oppressor’, ‘El Rey Pasmado’ (The Stunned King), and ‘Triste’ (The Sad One), Philip IV exemplifies the paradoxical figure of the absolute king who seeks to establish a modern state, a being who feels divinely elected but who is confronted with entirely human experiences and circumstances. How did Philip IV experience this situation? How did his awareness of this complexity manifest itself publicly and privately? This presentation seeks to interpret his unique figure based on the extensive collection of paintings he assembled with the support of Velázquez, royal painter and curator of the royal collections, and on the private correspondence that Philip IV exchanged during the last twenty years of his life with the nun and mystic Mother Maria de Agreda.

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CHAM / NOVA FCSH