Ten months have already passed since the prestigious American photographer Annie Leibovitz met with the Kings to photograph their portraits on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his coronation. Ten months in which the winner of the Princess of Asturias has been meticulously retouching the images that see the light of day today.
The exhibition The tyranny of Cronuswhich will be available until next March in the Bank of Spainhas been the setting chosen for the public presentation of these curious portraits for which Leibovitz was inspired by Velázquez. After this exhibition, the photographs will be added to the royal gallery of official portraits of the Bank of Spain which was inaugurated, at the end of the 18th century, with Goya’s painting of King Carlos III.
If you look at them from afar, these works they may look like paintingsas if the Kings had posed in a highly ornate Venetian palace. But up close you can see that it is a dependency of the Royal Palace, where on February 7, Annie Leibovitz was none other than six hours shooting flashes to Don Felipe and Doña Letizia. Of those hundreds of images, only two have been saved from burning.
A soldier and a Hollywood artist
As you can see in the image, the King wears the Army dress uniform. On the tunic he wears the red silk sash of the Captain General, several decorations, and the band of the Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III crossed over his chest, the same clothing that he wore on their wedding day and at their proclamation as king Furthermore, although both monarchs have a portrait each framed individually, the photo is just one. If you look closely, it is divided into a diptych but you can see the detail in the armchair cut out in the image.
The Queen poses in another corner of the Saleta, with wavy hair and wearing a necklace and earrings which belonged to Queen Victoria Eugenie. But without a doubt what draws the most attention is its dress signed by Cristóbal Balenciagawhich belongs to the collection of the Antoni de Montpalau Textile Collection. He red coat that Letizia wears as a cape was once worn by Carme Ferrer-Cajigal, countess of Torroella de Montgrí and marchioness of Robert, who commissioned it from Balenciaga in 1962 to wear it at the wedding of princes Juan Carlos and Sofia.
A job with freedom (and well paid)
“Annie Leibovitz worked with complete freedom“said Yolanda Romero, commissioner of The tyranny of Cronus. Thus, although it was Doña Letizia who chose her clothing and posed with various jewelry, the photographer decided “break protocol and stripped the queen of her diadem. Furthermore, although the Queen did not change her dress at any time, Felipe VI was a little more flirtatious and He wore three different types of clothes: the uniform, a morning coat and a tailcoat.
These unofficial portraits have been commissioned by the Bank of Spain, which signed a contract with Annie Leibovitz for which she received 137,000 euros for the portraits of the Kings, more 79,000 euros by that of the previous governor Pablo Hernández de Cos, which was presented at the same time as that of the Monarchs.
A legendary photographer
It is not the first time that Annie Leibovitz portrays kings. In 2007 and 2016 he photographed the Queen Elizabeth IIthe first in the palace of Buckingham and the second in the castle Windsoralong with her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, her husband, Princess Anne and even her corgis.
Politics has also been one of the objectives of his flash, photographing Richard Nixon leaving the White House for the last time, to the family Obamato Hillary Clinton or the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.
And surely some of his legendary photographs sound familiar to you, like the one of John Lennon and Yoko Ono cuddling with their backs to each other in bed, Demi Moore pregnant and naked or Mick Jagger in a bathrobe in an elevator.
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