The curious case of the King of Spain's blue coat

On 21 November 1553 Francisco de Eraso wrote to Prince Philip, future king of Spain, mentioning that a portrait by Titian had been sent secretly to Mary, queen of England, so that she could see his likeness before deciding whether to marry him. Eraso's letter is very specific about the picture that has been sent, describing 'the one with the blue coat with white wolf-skin, which is very good and like you'.

There appear to be two portraits by Titian of Philip II, all dating from around the right time in the 1550s to be the painting referred to in several letters written in November 1553. The picture sent was said to be 'already old', although it was painted only 'three years ago', and belonged to queen Mary of Hungary. The portrait had suffered already by the passing of time and transportation, but was considered good enough to get a sense of Philip's appearance 'if she will put it in a proper light and look at it from a distance, as all Titian's paintings have to be looked at'. Perhaps unusually, the queen dowager made it very clear that the portrait was only on loan to Mary of England, and was to be returned after the marriage 'since it is only a dead thing, when she has the living model in her presence'.

Clearly the description does not tally with the portraits (shown left and right) in existence at this time. The solution, identified by Charles Hope in an article entitled 'Titian, Philip II and Mary Tudor', is found in a reading of the original manuscript of Eraso's letter, where the portrait is described as 'vestido con un sayo afforando con lobos blancos' ('dressed in a furred sayo with white wolfskin'.) There is, in fact, no mention that the coat was blue. A sayo is a distinctive Spanish coat described by a modern dictionary as 'a large wide coat without buttons, any loose coat or dress'. The picture, above right, therefore fits the description well, although Charles Hope suggests that the surviving painting is a studio copy of another version of the same picture that was sent to Mary. In short, Titian probably painted multiple versions of the same image, and one - now lost - version of the 'furred' portrait was sent to England.