Goya etching. Queen Margaret of Austria on Horseback, after Velazquez.

The first edition of this print was made in black ink; the second in greyish-sepia ink; and the third in dark greyish-brown ink. Engraving on the copper foil: D MARGARITA DE AUSTRIA REYNA DE ESPAÑA, MUGER DE PHELIPE III. / Pintura de D. Diego Velazquez del tamaño del natural, en el Real Palacio de MADRID, dibujada y grabada por D. Fran.co Goya Pintor, año de 1778. Velázquez painted his equestrian portrait of Queen Margaret of Austria for the Hall of Kingdoms of Madrid's Buen Retiro Palace in 1633 (Prado Museum, Madrid). It is a somewhat controversial work, and possibly the least Velázquez-like of all of the equestrian portraits that have survived to this day. Out of all the copies of Velázquez's paintings in this series, this etching is the one in which Goya betrays the greatest uncertainty, suggesting that it was most likely one of the first to be executed. The horse on which Margaret of Austria is mounted has, in Goya's etching, become a motionless mass. Somewhat more interesting is the queen's clothing, in which, though only superficially, Goya has been able to capture the decorative motifs. Margaret of Austria's face, which is already rather inexpressive in Velázquez's painting, becomes even more neutral in Goya's etching, which strays away from the original work here. The landscape has been depicted using the same technique employed in Philip III, and is perhaps the most successful aspect of Goya's copy. However, it should be noted that he leaves out the garden and the fountain which can be seen in the oil painting, in the lower left-hand corner. According to Harris, much of the work was done using light drypoint: on the horse's mane, on the right-hand side of the queen's dress, on the fringe at the bottom of the blanket, and just below the queen's dress.