ABSTRACT
In the Spanish court of Philip II (1527-98), between 1559 and the late 1560s, three Habsburg princes were raised and educated together: Don Carlos (154568), the king’s son and heir, Alessandro Farnese (1545-92), the king’s nephew and heir to the Italian dukedoms of Parma and Piacenza and Don John of Austria (1547-78), the king’s illegitimate half-brother. ese youths were close in age, Alessandro and Don Carlos were born only two months apart, and Don John was younger by two years. During their time together at court, the likenesses of the young princes were frequently recorded to take note of their development, to assess their viability in marriage negotiations and to be displayed in emerging portrait galleries in European courts. is was in line with the practice of the Habsburg rulers to cultivate the production, reproduction and distribution of high quality portraits of members of their royal household, to maintain a sense of presence over their subjects and with family members across the expanse of Europe. Both Philip II and his sister Juana of Portugal (1535-73) , who served as regent for Philip in Spain, avidly commissioned works for their portrait collections in their respective palaces, El Pardo and the Descalzas Reales . In a recent monograph, Maria Kusche analyzes the patronage of and formal in uences between original paintings, copies and adaptions of portraits by the court artists Anthonis Mor (1517-77), Alonso Sánchez Coello (1531-88), Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625) and Jorge de la Rúa (act.1552-78).1 Kusche explores the formal, semi-private, familiar and genealogical functions of the portraits and acknowledges almost all early portraits of Don Carlos , Alessandro and Don John t within a broad schema of depictions of youths.2 is article further explores the concept of adolescence through these representations. Examined individually, the paintings of the princes appear to emulate those of Philip II and sometimes his father, Emperor Charles V (1500-58). Considered as a group,
this mimicry of forms does not merely set out to depict a child or adolescent as a miniature adult. ese princely portraits also present an understanding of early modern adolescence as youthful promise that was observed and illustrated by their evident physical growth between images and the attributes that indicate the titles and roles they were expected to ful l as adults.
