Cultural depictions of Philip II of Spain


Philip II of Spain has inspired artistic and cultural works for over four centuries, as the most powerful ruler in the Europe of his day, and subsequently a central figure in the "Black Legend" of Spanish power. The following list covers representations of him in drama, opera, film, novels, and verse. A small selection of the many artistic portrayals of Philip is shown in gallery form.

Literature


King Philip's in his closet with the Fleece about his neck

The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,
And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in.
He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon,
He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon,
And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and grey
Like plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day,
And death is in the phial, and the end of noble work,
But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk.

Art

Portraits

  1. In this portrait, Philip is wearing the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece and dressed in black armour similar to that made for him by Desiderius Colman of Augsburg, with gold damask work by Jorg Sigman, now in the Real Armería de Madrid. The Valencian Alonso Sánchez Coello was a pupil of Antonis Mor and a favourite painter of Philip.
  2. This bronze is believed to have first been cast in 1551. Giorgio Vasari notes that the Milan-based Leone Leoni also made heads of Philip and of Charles V. His son Pompeo Leoni produced a bust of Philip, c. 1556, painted silver, and later worked on the royal chapel at Phlip's palace of El Escorial.
  3. As he grew into middle age, the pious Philip favoured an austere style of dress for himself and his court. He is depicted here, as usual, wearing the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and he holds a rosary. The painting has traditionally been identified as by Sánchez Coello because of the stylistic similarity with his :Image:Alonso Sánchez Coello 003.jpg|portrait of Anne of Austria. More recently, however, it has been attributed to Sofonisba Anguissola, the artist from Cremona who served as lady-in-waiting to Philip's third wife, Elisabeth of Valois, and painted the royal family, often working closely with Sánchez Coello.
  4. Sánchez Coello’s successor as royal painter was his pupil Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, who painted this portrait of Philip in old age and went on to serve under Philip's son Philip III. In 1593, the Venetian ambassador Contarini reported that problems of debt, famine, and the succession "trouble the king's spirit and do much harm to his appearance". As described by the historian Henry Kamen, Pantoja de la Cruz’s portrait "reflects perfectly the wastage of the years. Philip stands erect, dressed from tip to toe in black, with the Fleece as his only ornament. His face is ashen white, the same colour as his beard and hair. The lips sag. His eyes now … are weary, the lids half-closed". In the view of the art historian Jonathan Brown, Pantoja de la Cruz continued the style of Sánchez Coello but added the influence of Flemish painters, particularly of Rubens, resulting in a freer technique and greater psychological penetration.

    Allegories

  5. Mixing portraiture and allegory, this Elizabethan painting shows Henry VIII of England and his three children alongside figures from mythology. Henry died in 1547, but his daughter Mary is shown on the left of the painting next to her husband, Philip, whom she did not marry until 1554 when she was queen. Mars, god of war, looming behind the couple, symbolises their wars. Owing to a similarity of style and composition with Lucas de Heere's :Image:Gantesalomon.jpg|Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and other works, the art historian Roy Strong has attributed the work to de Heere. The art scholar and curator Karen Hearn, however, regards the attribution as speculative. Another source for the composition may be the group portrait :Image:Family of Henry VIII c 1545.jpg|The Family of Henry VIII. Prototypes for the figures of Philip and Mary are found in the portraits of Anthonis Mor.
  6. Titian’s allegorical canvas, painted in the artist's nineties when he had not seen Philip for many years, celebrates both the victory of the Holy League over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and the birth shortly afterwards of a male heir to Philip, Don Fernando. The two events were seen as signs of God's favour. The battle is shown in the background, and a bound and defeated Turk slumps at Philip's feet. The king holds Fernando up to an angel, to receive a palm branch with the motto: "Majora tibi". A favourite artist of King Philip, Titian died in 1576, and Prince Fernando followed in 1578. Lepanto effectively ended Ottoman ambitions in the western Mediterranean.
  7. El Greco may have painted The Adoration of the Name of Jesus in an attempt to win favour with King Philip, but he never achieved that aim. The subject is based on a text in Paul but may also be read as an allegory of the Holy League's victory over the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571. The black-clad figure in the foreground is identifiable as King Philip; the man in the yellow robe as a doge of Venice; the old man opposite him as the pope; and the figure on the left as Philip's brother John of Austria, the commander of the Christian fleet. In the heavens shines a monogram formed from IHS, the first three letters of the name Jesus in Greek—also In Hoc Signo and Jesus Hominum Salvator. A larger version of the painting, a votive altarpiece called The Dream of Philip II, is in the Escorial, Spain.
  8. The Milch Cow was probably completed in the period following the visit to Queen Elizabeth's court in 1581–1582 of François, Duke of Anjou, brother of King Henry III of France, to discuss his marriage proposal and military support for the Anglo-Dutch alliance against the Spanish. Anjou's subsequent mission to the Netherlands met with disaster when the citizens of Antwerp massacred his army in early 1583. This satirical cartoon, one of several painted versions of the joke, depicts a cow which represents the Dutch provinces: King Philip is vainly trying to ride the cow; Queen Elizabeth is feeding it; William of Orange is milking it; and the cow is shitting on the hand of the Duke of Anjou, who is holding its tail. The caption reads:

Not longe time since I sawe a cowe
Did Flaunders represente
Upon whose backe King Philup rode
As being malecontnt.
The Queene of England giving hay
Wheareon the cow did feede,
As one that was her greatest helpe
In her distresse and neede.
The Prince of Orange milkt the cowe
And made his purse the payle.
The cow did shyt in Monsieur's hand
While he did hold her tayle.

Video Games

In Civilization VI, Philip II leads the Spanish empire.