Alonso Sánchez Coello Benifairó del Valls, Valencia 1531/2 - 1588 Madrid

Maria Kushe (see Literature) believes this portrait of the Archduke Wenceslaus of Austria to have been painted by Sánchez Coello in around 1571-72. Judging by the apparent age of the sitter, it must slightly predate the artist's full-length portrait of Wenceslaus at the age of 13, which is signed and dated 1574 and hangs today along with its pendant of his brother, the Archduke Albert (1559-1621), in the Castle of Ambras, just outside of Innsbruck (see M. Kushe, under Literature, p. 320, reproduced figs. 277 and 278). As Kushe observes, the present work was almost certainly painted together with a bust-length portrait of Archduke Albert, both works providing the inspiration for Sanchez Coello's full-length portraits of 1574, which existed in at least three autograph versions (three versions of the portrait of Archduke Wenceslaus are preserved at the Castle of Ambras, only one version of the portrait of Archduke Albert survives).

The Archdukes Albert and Wenceslaus were sons of Emperor Maximillian II and Queen Maria of Austria, and nephews to King Phillip II of Spain. In 1570 they accompanied their sister Ana of Austria to Spain on the occasion of her marriage to Phillip II, in order to complete their education and to increase their ties with the Spanish realm. The present portrait must have been painted shortly after their arrival in Madrid in 1570, and was almost certainly commissioned by the new Queen from her official court painter, following the success of Sánchez Coello's widely acclaimed portraits of her elder brothers, Rodolfo and Ernest, which hung in the portrait gallery, El Pardo.