Philip IV's Fiesta de Aranjuez, Part I: The Marriage of Cosimo II de Medici to María Magdalena De Austria and Leonor Pimentel

PHILIP IV’S FIESTA DE ARANJUEZ, PART I: THE MARRIAGE OF COSIMO II DE MEDICI TO MARÍA MAGDALENA DE AUSTRIA AND LEONOR PIMENTEL by Frank A. Domínguez University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ON May 15, 1622, Philip IV of Spain (1605-1665) celebrated his seventeenth birthday with the first of the impressive court festivals that were to distinguish his reign.1 Held at Aranjuez, a palace near Madrid where the court resided in early Spring, the festival was the first major theatrical court function of his reign.2 Although some time had passed since the double wedding of Isabel de Medici to crown prince Philip, and of Ana de Habsburgo to Louis XIII of France on November 24, 1615, Philip was eleven and Isabel thirteen, so their marriage was not consummated until Nov. 25, 1620 (Nov. 28, 1620; Mediceo del Principato 4949, fo. 649). Mourning for Philip’s father, who died on March 31, 1621, lasted for the customary year and was also complicated by the fact that Isabel gave premature birth to a daughter on August 14, 1621, who died (Aug. 19, 1621; Mediceo del Principato 4949, fo. 951). That meant that the Aranjuez festival was the first real opportunity for the new court favorites to serve their royal patrons. At Aranjuez, the queen – Isabel de Borbón (1603-1644) – and doña Leonor Pimentel staged two plays on successive nights during which Villamediana ’s La gloria de Niquea and Lope de Vega’s El vellocino de oro3 were performed by the “meninas” of the court, who were all young daughters of important noblemen. Therefore, they can also be considered as vehicles for the court to feature young women near marriageable age in fantastic dresses. 39 Although the entertainment began when the king entered the space of the performance to the sound of “trompetas y chirimías,” the festivities proper were started by a “máscara” danced by pairs of these young women: Sofía and Luisa de Benavides, María Coutino and Catalina de Velasco, Ana de Sande and Margarita Zapata, Leonor de Guzmán and Ana María de Guevara, María de Tabara and Constanza de Ribera. In other words, danced by contending courtiers (Hurtado de Mendoza 11). Next a chariot entered the theater space: an allegory of the river Tagus (played by Margarita de Tabara) surrounded by water and wood Nymphs. The Tagus ascended the stage and greeted the king as another chariot entered representing the month of April (played by Francisca de Tabara) and pulled by the constellation Taurus. She too dismounted and recited a poem praising the king. Next came Age, seated on an eagle (played 40 Frank A. Domínguez Diego de Velázquez, Philip IV of Spain (1623), Museo del Prado, Spain Diego de Velázquez, Isabel de Borbón (1631-32), Museo del Prado, Spain by Antonia de Acuña, who is described as very young), and recited some verses that recalled the deeds of the king’s forebears and prophesized his future greatness. The eagle on which Antonia de Acuña sat was then pulled to the top of the stage, without revealing its “tramoya” to the audience, to allow the trunks of three trees open to reveal three nymphs (María de Aragón, Mariana de Hoz, and Isabel de Salazar) who sang for the audience. When “máscara” ended, the ladies descended from the stage and arranged themselves in the two “estrados” in front of the king to hear María de Guzmán, the daughter of the Count of Olivares, recite the “loa” to the first play, La gloria de Niquea. From the beginning, the entertainment had been conceived as a festive contest between the queen and doña Leonor Pimentel. Each lady sponsored a play and playwright, and each headed a faction of ladies vying for the night’s honors . Although doña Leonor’s role within the plays, if any, is not known, the first play concluded when the queen and all the participating ladies appeared on a mountain that had been set up by the stage. The mountain split open to reveal a garden in which the queen was...