His first marriage, at age 16 to Maria of Portugal, bore a potential heir, Don Carlos, later the subject of the Verdi opera that bears his name. They generally helped him build the empire through their strategic family alliances with other nations, and they are pictured in chronological order. The show at El Escorial takes a fresh approach by emphasizing the women in Philip's life: his mother, aunts, sisters, his four wives and his daughters. That view was disseminated in books of the period, and six such volumes are part of the show. Some Spanish conservatives defended him as a model ruler against his numerous detractors, particularly English and Dutch Protestants who spread what became known as the ''black legend,'' focusing on his oppressive tactics in Europe and the New World. Each speaks to Philip's power, while the numerous religious icons on view show his devotion to Catholicism. There are two portraits of the proud, steely-eyed young Philip wearing black armor with gold inlay, one by Titian in 1551 and the other by the Spanish painter Antonio Moro in 1557, the year after he took the throne. The exhibition includes 514 items, including paintings, books, documents, and jewelry recovered from sunken Armada ships, the latter on loan from the Ulster Museum in Belfast and being shown in Spain for the first time. It was here that Philip received the bad news about the Armada, and here that he died in Spartan quarters at age 71 and was buried. More than 500,000 visitors are expected at the three shows.Įl Escorial, with four sharply pointed towers at its corners, provides a powerful backdrop for the first show. The other two begin in October: ''A Prince of the Renaissance'' at the Prado, and ''The King's Land and Men'' at the Villena Palace in Philip's native city of Valladolid, 120 miles northwest of Madrid. 10 at El Escorial, the mammoth granite palace and monastery he built 30 miles northwest of Madrid. Black legend of spain full#The commemoration promises just as full and fair a look at Philip, addressing his ''lights and shadows.'' The first exhibition, ''The Hispanic Monarchy,'' opened on June 1 and runs through Oct. Their combined sales of 60,000 copies are remarkable for the genre. Two recent biographies, ''Philip of Spain'' by Henry Kamen, an English historian, and ''Philip II and His Time'' by Manuel Fernandez Alvarez, a Spanish historian, dispel stereotypes of an austere, narrow-minded Philip. So the commemoration is stirring discussion of just how much to clean up the image of Philip, and Spaniards seem to be warming to the debate. The question remains whether ruthlessness would be at odds with refined intellectual tastes. He also collected 5,000 books, far more than his Spanish royal predecessors did. Philip collected some 2,000 paintings, including the 40 by Titian and six by Hieronymous Bosch.
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