The other unquestionably authentic work by the master at the Louvre is
to be found in the La Caze Bequest. It is catalogued as _Portrait of
the Infanta Maria Teresa, afterwards Queen of France_ (No. 1735), but
is in reality a portrait of _Queen Mariana of Austria_, the mother of
the Infanta Margarita Maria. Mariana was married to Philip IV. as his
second wife in 1649, at the age of fourteen. Velazquez was at that time
in Italy, so that the duty of painting her first portrait for the royal
bridegroom fell to the Court Painter’s son-in-law and chief pupil, Juan
Bautista del Mazo (1610-1667).
The portrait at the Louvre was, if we may judge from the apparent age
of the child-queen as she is here represented, painted in 1651, when
Velazquez had returned from his second Italian journey and when Mariana
was sixteen years of age. It was probably a preliminary study from life
for the larger portrait in the Vienna Gallery. This admirable portrait
is another artistic triumph over unfavourable conditions imposed by
the hideousness of contemporary female attire, although the forehead
has been spoilt by clumsy repainting. The coiffure in particular, a
cascade of false hair, bows, jewels, and feathers, is more suggestive
of some exotic idol or fetish than of a human being. In 1863, before
the judgment of a tasteless age, which gave Velazquez a position far
below the then absurdly overrated Murillo, was revised, this portrait
of Mariana appeared at the Viardot sale and failed to realise more than
£200!