Enemies of Flattery: Velazquez' Portraits of Philip IV Since antiquity, portraits of rulers have reflected the aspirations, ideals, and pretensions of those in power. Because these images epitomize a ruler's self-concept, they are valuable sources for understanding the personalities and programs of the sitters. The messages of ruler portraits can be decoded by standard methods of content analysis, but equally important is the subtlety of conception and the quality of execution, elements which were always appreciated by the shrewder princes and potentates. In the seventeenth century, the period with which I am concerned here, many of the best artists were employed at the major courts, where they consolidated the traditions of princely glorification which had begun to take shape during the previous 200 years. In general terms, as the power of the absolute monarch grew, the images of the ruler became more assertive in their claims and richer in their references to the virtues embodied in the prince. As fashioned by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck, and Charles LeBrun, the Baroque ruler portrait speaks tellingly of the golden age of the European monarch. How strange, then, that the portraits of Philip IV of Spain, one of the greatest rulers, painted by Diego de Velazquez, one of the greatest artists, should go against the grain of the prevailing trend. An examination of this phenomenon affords the opportunity to study concepts of kingship in the early modern period as they are reflected in official state portraiture. It is a rare study of Velazquez which fails to comment on the restraint and sobriety of these portraits. Explanations of the phenomenon, however, are difficult to find. The one in widest circulation postulates that the painter was concerned with expressing the essence of kingly power, which made redundant the use of allegory. Undoubtedly, this observation is correct, but it does not