Antonis Mor - The Spanish Court

The Spanish Court

Mor probably accompanied Philip on his return to Spain in 1559. That Mor stayed at the Spanish court is confirmed by the letters which Philip send regularly to Mor after he had left again in 1561. In these letters the return of the painter to the court was asked several for times by Philip, but Mor would never comply to this request. Among the works which Mor supposedly painted in Spain are the Portrait of Juana of Austria and the Portrait of Don Carlos. A much praised work from this period is the Portrait of Pejerón, the fool of the earl of Benavente and the duke of Alva. There has been extended speculation about the reason for his departure. According to Carel van Mander Mor became too confidential with the king and this aroused the suspicion of the Inquisition. He may also have been alarmed by the increasingly repressive Counter-Reformation tenor of the Spanish court. Mor's pupil Alonso Sánchez Coello continued in the style of his master, and replaced him as Spanish court painter.