Krönungsporträt Ferdinands III. von Justus Sustermans aus dem Jahre 1626

Coronation portrait of Ferdinand III from 1626. The Hungarian costume as a tool of power representation in early 17 th century royal coronations. Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg was crowned king of Hungary in Sopron, West Hungary, on 8 December 1625. His attire worn during the ceremony was identical with the apparel he is depicted in the portrait attributed to Justus Sustermans. The painting was engraved by Wolfgang Kilian in 1629. Though Ferdinand was crowned king of Bohemia in 1627, the engraving shows him in the costume worn during the Hungarian coronation. The Hungarian attire first received a symbolic role in the monarchic representation of Habsburg kings at the coronation of Matthias II as king of Bohemia: he entered the electoral diet and coronation ceremony in Prague in the Hungarian costume, and the Bohemian coronation medals also feature him in Hungarian clothes. That is how he is depicted in the portrait by Hans von Aachen, in which the Bohemian crown and the Hungarian costume jointly represented the dual (Hungarian-Bohemian) royal title. The Hungarian costume also had a protocol role in diplomatic relation with the Ottomans: the Viennese envoys appeared in the sultan’s court wearing Hungarian attire, because the monarchic power of the Habsburgs was exclusive acknowledged by the Ottoman Turks in their dignity as kings of Hungary. In West Europe, the costume of the Hungarians defending the eastern frontiers of Christendom implied the meaning of the protectors of the faith and was integrated in the representation of the Habsburgs toward Europe in this sense. The first known owner of the portrait is Diego Mexía Felipez de Guzmán, marquis Leganés, whose inventories for 1637, 1642 and 1655 include the painting as item 475, without the painter’s name. The number is still visible on the painting. The Madrid picture collection of Leganés was the most significant collection by a Spanish aristocrat, a third comprising portraits of members of European royal families and nobility. The historic significance of the portrait of Ferdinand III is the highly accurate, in colour true depiction of the Hungarian crown, one of the earliest authentic renderings of the insignia. The exact details suggest that it was surveyed in person, but the order of keeping the coronation insignia only made viewing possible during the coronation. Literature registers that Sustermans visited Vienna twice, for a lengthier period in 1623–1624 to depict members of the ruling family. The portrait of Ferdinand III suggests he made a third trip, at the time of the coronation in Sopron. According to the inscription on the back, the picture was made in January 1626, presumably already in Florence. It passed from a private owner abroad into the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery in 1992.