Tabacalera displays the portrait of Philip II that hides the secret of his marriage to Mary Tudor

"Paintings speak of art, but it is on the back where we find their history." With this phrase, collector and critic Alejandro Sanz Peinado hinted this Thursday that the small masterpiece before us held a secret on its back. It is an early portrait of Philip II, a bust-type image with the signature of the Flemish school based on a full-body work by Titian, which became the first official 'photo' of the then 25-year-old prince. Although it is a replica, we are looking at a detailed image of the attire, including the Golden Fleece, the highest distinction of the Spanish crown - recently awarded to Queen Sofia. Additionally, this piece had a clear destination, the English monarchy, which is what is discovered on the reverse of the oil painting, and it was probably used for the British Mary Tudor to get to know her Spanish suitor. A sort of 16th-century 'Tinder' that ended in a 'match' as they married in 1554, about four years after this mediating artwork was dated.

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"With this portrait, the aim was to spread the image of Philip II as a Renaissance prince, as the great king who would govern Europe, which is why replicas like this one were made," explained Ángel Rodríguez Rebollo, curator of the exhibition 'The Art of Painting. Confluences in the Time of the Austrias in the collection of Alejandro Sanz Peinado', which was presented this Thursday at the Russian Museum now sharing its space with the new MEET (Málaga Espacio Expositivo Tabacalera), to which this exhibition belongs. In fact, this exhibition takes over the central and largest rooms of this great cultural center, which becomes until September 2026 a small Monastery of El Escorial or a European museum of Renaissance and Baroque painting.

Among the 80 works from the Spanish, Flemish, and Italian schools, the royal portraits of the Austrias stand out, from Charles I to his great-grandson Charles II. Among them, some with hidden history on the back like the small oil of Philip II, which the collector and owner has authorized to be unhooked and turned over during the presentation of the exhibition to show that hidden history on its back. On one side, you can read the inscription "Luca de Holanda," and on the other, a sealed red stamp of the British royal family indicating that the piece belonged to the house of Her Majesty and "surely Mary Tudor saw it to see the face of the person she was going to marry," the curator pointed out about this work that was the prelude to a marriage that was more of a political agreement than love. And that ended without offspring.

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Sanz Peinado keeps his collection of jewels of Spanish, Flemish, and Italian painting in a museum/bunker in the Sierra de Madrid

The painting of King Philip is not the only picture with a history in the exhibition, since that of his father Charles V, a large oil on canvas with the signature of the Flemish School of the 16th century, does not show the monarch in military armor as he was reproduced in Spain, but in a singular attire as grand master of the order of the Golden Fleece, which is shown in all its splendor with the golden fleece hanging from a thick chain of links and flints. "Notice how the frame of the work precisely reproduces the shapes of the links of the decoration," the collector Sanz Peinado pointed out, who has mentioned that this valuable collection is kept in a museum/bunker that he built in his house in the Sierra de Madrid on the footprint of an old fronton that existed on his property.

Velázquez and his Workshop

The Spanish kings, with their empires expanded in Holland and Italy, in addition to the national territory, serve as the common thread of the exhibition that treasures European works from the time of the Austrias and the Spanish Golden Age, with essential names such as Zurbarán, Diego Velázquez, José de Ribera, Anton van Dyck, Coello, El Divino Morales - also with very representative work in the Museum of Malaga -, Villem van Herp, David Teniers, and Pedro Pablo Rubens, to whom a small room has been dedicated as a "chapel," as the curator has baptized it. The exhibition also includes a portrait of Philip IV with the seal of the Velázquez Workshop, as well as an oil painting of his successor, the last of the Austria Dynasty, Charles II, whose red lips and face cannot hide the hemophilia and inbreeding. The painting by Juan Carreño was made in the last year of the monarch's life, 1685, and the master captures the definitive decline of the Habsburgs despite, of course, the precious Golden Fleece with which his ancestors are also portrayed.

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Zurbarán, Diego Velázquez, José de Ribera, Van Dyck, Coello, El Divino Morales, Van Herp, David Teniers, and Rubens are present in the exhibition at the MEET

"It is a masterful work of the king, who was ill, but not stupid or an idiot, as this image shows that exposes the end of the party of the Austrias, a bitter time of that Spain," the collector Alejandro Sanz Peinado, an anxious and multifaceted art lover who, as a young man, was mayor of his town La Cabera and held various executive positions in the Community of Madrid - in sports, justice, or social affairs, although curiously not in culture - until two decades ago he returned to the private sector. As a collector, he revealed today that, in addition to these works of the Renaissance and Baroque, he also collects contemporary art, although he has only about fifty because he is very selective with contemporary creators. "Painting has to pass the test of time's fire. I am waiting to see if my contemporary collection stands up in 50 years," he emphasized.

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According to Sanz Peinado, he started his collection with Dutch painting from the 17th century. Specifically, with a delicate portrait, 'Lady with Gloves' (c.1645-1650), oil on panel by Jakob van Loo, in which several motivations coincided: he liked it, it was from a school that is "one of the gaps in the Prado" and also it was "cheap." However, neither this work nor the rest of those exhibited in Malaga look like a bargain. Like the oil on panel shown for the first time after being rehabilitated, 'Saint Michael Defeating the Devil', a Gothic work in transition to the Renaissance attributed by the signature to Pedro Delgado and initially dated in 1510. The work went up for auction in 2022 for 355,000 euros, a high price after being declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest to prevent its export outside of Spain, but the collector did not miss the opportunity.

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"But when it was cleaned for this exhibition and the repaints were removed, it was seen that Pedro Delgado's name is no longer readable, although the author is not identified either," the collector discovered about this exceptional and unique work that, after this discovery, has delayed its origin to be placed "around 1430 and attributed to the Flemish school." Thus, the panel not only sets the clock back a century, but its literature starts from scratch: "Great authors had written about it, but now everything is under review." And it is that sometimes, the stories of paintings are not only hidden on the reverse of the canvases, but also hidden in front of the eyes.