Buen Retiro Palace

…in the Baroque style, the Buen Retiro Palace just outside Madrid, has not survived (for a discussion of the fine porcelain manufactured there later, see Buen Retiro ware). Built in the 1630s, in the middle of the Thirty Years’ War, at a time when Spain’s military fortunes were beginning to…

…as a ballroom for the Buen Retiro Palace. Work on a new wing began in 2002 and was completed in 2007. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rafael Moneo, it expanded the museum by more than 235,000 square feet (22,000 square metres).

…throne room of the new Buen Retiro palace, completed in 1635, Velázquez painted a series of royal equestrian portraits, following a tradition that goes back in Spain to Titian’s The Emperor Charles V at Mühlberg (1548) and was continued by Rubens. Velázquez’s equestrian groups have a balance and poise closer…