Royal Portraits...

7:30 p.m.

Annie Leibovitz (United States, 1949) presents the portraits of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, capturing not only the majesty of royalty, but also their humanity and closeness in a modern context. They are on display at the exhibition "Tyranny of Cronus", where the relationship between time and power is explored, showing how history and tradition are intertwined with the present.

King Felipe and Queen Letizia, by Annie Leibovitz (2024) - Diptych

Technique: photography printed with UV drying inks on primed polyester canvas

The photographs were commissioned to the author in 2023 by the Bank of Spain, which paid for them a six figures sum. The centuries-old tradition of commissioning a portrait of the head of state for the Bank's official gallery, for the first time, welcomed photographic portraits. The images were taken in the Gasparini Hall of the Royal Palace. Leibovitz shows us on the background of the King's portrait, a clock from the 18th century that belongs to the National Heritage. This object is repeated in the painting of the Bank's first portrait painter: Francisco de Goya (Spain, 1746 – France, 1828). Thus an invisible line unites both artists.

José Moñino y Redondo, I Conde de Floridablanca, by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

Technique: oil on canvas

Leibovitz spent months studying the Bank's Collection, which dates back to 1783 and has more than one hundred portraits, including those of the emeritus kings, which were also made in diptych. The institution, for its part, sought to introduce photographic support into its collection and for the portraits to go to a foreign artist to internationalize and give a feminine presence.