Philip II face swap

Where this one comes from

Alonso Sánchez Coello painted Philip II of Spain around 1570, in the black dress the Spanish court made compulsory and the rest of Europe eventually copied. Philip ruled Spain, the Netherlands, Naples, Sicily, the Philippines and most of the Americas, and governed the lot by reading paperwork — his officials complained that nothing moved until he had annotated it. He had been king of England too, by marriage, for four years.

What is in the picture

Black on black: a doublet worked in gold thread, a short cape, and a small stiff ruff at the throat that is the only bright thing above the waist. The collar of the Golden Fleece hangs at his chest. The Habsburg jaw is there, inherited and unmistakable, and the expression is careful and slightly cold. Spanish court portraiture of this period stripped out landscape, colour and gesture on purpose, leaving a man standing still in a dark room.

When people use it

For running something entirely by documentation. It fits the person who replies to everything in writing, and it is the face for a decision that took six weeks and a paper trail.

How your face lands in it

A three-quarter head above a small ruff, lit flatly from the front with the black clothing giving a hard edge all round it. Straightforward, and the ruff does the framing. The head sits a little smaller in this frame than in a close portrait, so a sharp photograph is worth the effort.

Philip II of Spain — Alonso Sánchez Coello, c. 1570. Alonso Sánchez Coello died in 1588, so the painting has been in the public domain for centuries, and a faithful photograph of it gains no rights of its own. Source

Also in: Paintings · Royal portraits