Episode 68 with Amanda Wunder
The dresses worn by members of Spain’s royal family are indelible features of Diego Velázquez’s famous paintings, but what is the story of the creation of these remarkable fashions? In this episode, Prof. Amanda Wunder, author of Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV, tells us the story of Mateo Aguado, the tailor for the queens of King Philip IV’s court and the artisan behind many of the striking fashions of Spain’s Golden Age. We discuss many aspects of Aguado’s life and career, including the process of royal dressmaking and the evolving political implications of his creations.
The Episode
The Guest
Amanda Wunder (PhD in History, Princeton University, 2002) is professor of History at Lehman College and is on the doctoral faculty in Art History, History, and Global Early Modern Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her publications on the art and culture of early modern Spain include Baroque Seville: Sacred Art in a Century of Crisis (2017) and Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV (2024; Spanish ed., 2023), which was awarded the 2024 Renaissance Society of America’s Gordon Book Prize for the best book in Renaissance studies. She is curating an exhibition called Spanish Style: Fashion Illuminated, 1550-1700 that will open in November 2025 at the Hispanic Society of America in New York City.
Suggested Readings
- Bernis, Carmen. “La moda en los retratos de Velázquez.” El retrato (2004): 251–88.
- Colomer, José Luis and Amalia Descalzo, eds. Spanish Fashion at the Courts of Early Modern Europe. Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2014.
- Romero González, Álvaro. Vistiendo al rey: Indumentaria, artesanos y trayectorias sociales en la corte de los Austiras (1598-1700). Ediciones Trea, 2024.
- Wunder, Amanda. “Women’s Fashions and Politics in Seventeenth-Century Spain: The Rise and Fall of the Guardainfante.” Renaissance Quarterly 68, no. 1 (Spring 2015): 133–86.
Image Links
- Queen Mariana of Austria– Diego Velázquez
- The Infanta Margarita of Austria– Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo
- Las Meninas– Diego Velázquez
Historias 