3-097-622 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Ferdinand II of Aragon, c1848. Portrait of Ferdinand II of Aragon, called the Catholic (1452-1516). Ferdinand is considered the de facto first king of Spain. He was King of Aragon, and as the husband and co-ruler of Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was also King of Castile (as Ferdinand V). His reign marked the end of the Reconquista (the overthrow of Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula) and also the start of the Spanish Empire. The Chronological Series of the Kings of Spain was a museum project planned in 1847 by José de Madrazo to adorn four of the new rooms at the Real Museo de Pinturas (Royal Museum of Paintings), then under his direction. At the height of the confrontation between the supporters of Isabella II and the Carlists, who denied the sovereign's right to occupy the throne because she was a woman, the queen assented to the creation and display of a portrait gallery that would represent all the preceding monarchs in chronological order. To fill the gaps of the medieval kings, of whom there were no images in the Royal Collections, portraits were commissioned from a number of young painters.