Philip the Handsome

Pieter van Coninxloo, who was a painter active at the Burgundian-Habsburg court, known for royal portraits and devotional works, created this work around 1493, now in London's National Gallery. This work reflects the artistic culture of Brussels during the High Renaissance, when the innovations of the early fifteenth century reached their mature expression in works of unprecedented technical and compositional sophistication.

The painting reveals skilled handling of tempera medium in the graduated modeling of drapery and flesh tones, with the balanced composition and clear spatial organization typical of established Italian workshop methods.