The Kings admire their portraits with Annie Leibovitz: "What do you think?"
The King and Queen, together with photographer Annie Leibovitz, saw for the first time the portraits that the artist made of them in the Gasparini Hall of the Royal Palace commissioned by the Bank of Spain and which hang in its headquarters in the exhibition 'The Tyranny of Cronos'.
"It is not up to us" to decide how they look in these portraits, the King said when asked by journalists, while the Queen said: "What do you think?" while nodding with a smile. Both of them discussed with the photographer the portraits in which Felipe VI appears in a formal Army uniform, and Queen Letizia in a black and fuchsia Balenciaga creation that Leibovitz took of them on February 7, 2024 during a session of more than five hours.
Two large portraits that the King and Queen observed in detail on Wednesday on an occasion for which the photographer travelled expressly to Madrid and which are the focus of attention of the exhibition that the Bank of Spain has decided to extend until 31 May due to the large number of visitors it is receiving.
More than 26,000 visitors since last November, a number of people that had never been seen in such a short period of time at the Bank of Spain exhibition, where the portraits of the kings appear in the circular room alongside those of José Ramón Álvarez Rendueles and two paintings by Francisco de Goya.
The presentation ceremony to the King and Queen was also attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas; the Governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá; the Deputy Governor, Margarita Delgado; Álvarez Rendueles and the curator of the exhibition, Yolanda Romero.
This work, for which the Bank of Spain paid the photographer 137,000 euros, is the first portrait of the Bank of Spain in which photography has been used, and will be added to the collection of this institution that reflects its history since its creation in 1782, on the initiative of King Charles III, when it was born as the Bank of San Carlos.
The portraits, which will be displayed in the Board of Directors room of the Bank of Spain, are being added to the collection together with those of Charles III by Goya, that of Charles IV by Mariano Salvador Maella, that of Isabel II by Federico de Madrazo, that of Alfonso XIII painted by José Villegas y Cordero, and that of King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia by Carmen Laffón.
The portraits make up a diptych: in the first, King Felipe VI, standing and in a natural pose, wears the navy blue Army dress uniform and, over his tunic , he sports the red silk sash of Captain General, several decorations, and the band of the Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III crossed over his chest.
In the second, Queen Letizia enters the chamber, flooded with natural light, wearing a strapless silk tulle dress from the 1940s and a pink silk gala cape from the 1960s, both by designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, provided by the Antoni de Montpalau Foundation.
As accessories, Queen Letizia wears a necklace with chatons - a jewel that King Alfonso XIII gave to his wife Victoria Eugenia of Battermberg -, diamond earrings and a ring on her index finger, from the contemporary firm Coreterno, a piece inscribed with the words 'Amor che tutto move' (love moves everything).
heraldo
