Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (1500-1569),
The Allegory of Parma Embracing Alexander Farnese at the Age of 11, 1556.
This painting was created to commemorate the departure for Spain of Alexander Farnese (1545-1592), son of Octavio Farnese, Duke of Parma, and Margaret of Austria, the illegitimate daughter of Charles V.
Despite the rapprochement between the two families, it was not until 1556 that a treaty was signed in Ghent between the new King of Spain, Philip II, son of Charles V, and the Farnese family, by which the Parmesan family definitively pledged their allegiance to Spain.
Portrait of Prince Alexander Farnese, 1557, by Anthonis Mor
Among the terms of the agreement, Philip II requested that young Alexander be sent to Spain as a hostage, to reside and be educated there in the Spanish style, as a pledge of the Farnese family's loyalty to the imperial crown.
Thus the young Italian boy, after spending the first ten years of his life in Parma, had to live his adolescence at the court of Philip II, alongside Don Carlos of Austria, 1545/1568 his cousin of the same age, son of Philip II and Prince of Asturias,
don Carlos de Austria, 1557
and Don Juan of Austria, 1547/1578 natural son of Charles V and, therefore, young uncle of Alexander.
Don Juan de Austria, 1567
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