Artwork
Prince Don Carlos and the Duke of Alba
Prince Don Carlos and the Duke of Alba is an oil painting by the Post-Impressionist artist José Uría y Uría. It dates from 1891 and is held in the collection of the Museo del Prado.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
These secular portraits are integrated with sacred imagery, specifically including representations of the Ecce Homo and the Mater Dolorosa with her hands apart.
Painted in 1881 by José Uría y Uría, this oil on canvas presents a complex historical and religious tableau. The work explicitly depicts two prominent figures from the Spanish court: Carlos, Prince of Asturias, and Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the 3rd Duke of Alba. These secular portraits are integrated with sacred imagery, specifically including representations of the Ecce Homo and the Mater Dolorosa with her hands apart.
The composition further incorporates a portrait of Philip II of Spain, linking the depicted nobility to the monarch. By combining specific historical personages with iconic religious scenes of Christ's suffering and the Virgin Mary's grief, the painting creates a narrative that intertwines royal authority with Catholic devotion.
Technique & Style
Executed in 1881 by José Uría y Uría, this work is an oil painting on canvas. The composition measures 96 cm in height and 135 cm in width. As a history painting housed in the Museo del Prado, the piece utilizes traditional oil mediums to render a complex scene featuring multiple historical figures, including Prince Don Carlos and the Duke of Alba, alongside religious iconography such as the Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa.
The artist's handling of the medium supports a multi-figure arrangement that integrates portraiture with devotional elements within a single pictorial space.
History & Provenance
Prince Don Carlos and the Duke of Alba is an oil painting on canvas by José Uría y Uría, dated 1881. According to the Wikidata record for the work, its inception is given as 1881, and it measures 96 cm in height by 135 cm in width. The painting is held in the collection of the Museo del Prado, where it is currently located.
The available sources do not provide further details on the circumstances of its commission, its original patron, or any intermediate ownership before it entered the Prado's holdings.
Context
The painting Prince Don Carlos and the Duke of Alba by José Uría y Uría was created in 1881 and is housed in the Museo del Prado. It portrays key figures including the infante Carlos, the 3rd Duke of Alba, and symbolic elements such as Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa, reflecting religious and royal themes. Uría y Uría's work situates him within 19th-century Spanish academic painting, with this canvas exemplifying historical narrative techniques and royal iconography.
The work's composition and subject matter have been analyzed in scholarship focusing on 19th-century Spanish art and royal portraiture.
Overview
José Uría y Uría’s 1891 oil painting, Prince Don Carlos and the Duke of Alba, portrays a tense encounter between the young Prince of Asturias and the seasoned commander Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba. The work is part of the Museo del Prado’s collection and exemplifies the artist’s late‑19th‑century historic genre.
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Artist & collection
Juan de Austria's presentation to Emperor Carlos V in Yuste
La vuelta del torneo
La poetisa
La duquesa de Alençon presentada a su hermano el rey de Francia Francisco I por el emperador Carlos V
¡Pobre bruja!
Mensaje de Carlos I al cardenal Cisneros (1517)
Inès de Castro and Her Children Throwing Themselves at the Feet of King Alphonso IV of Portugal
King John III Sobieski and Marysieńka
Uhlan's homecoming
La prisión del príncipe de Viana
Tasso Reading Before the Duke of Ferrara- Philip II of Spain Honours Don John of Austria