The miniature is after Peter Paul Rubens' portrait of Philip IV (1605-1665), King of Spain from 1621 to 1665 and King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640, remembered for his involvement in the Thirty Years' War, which ultimately saw the decline of Spanish power abroad, and for his patronage of the arts amassing more than four thousand paintings during his lifetime. Velázquez was his principal court portraitist although he also employed the Flemish painter Rubens (1577-1640), who executed this portrait in 1628-29.

The miniature, possibly original, is set in a frame made by Alfred Andre (1839-1919), the restorer, and illustrated in A. Kugel, R. Distelberger and M. Bimbenet-Privat, Joyaux Renaissance une splendeur retrouvée, Paris, 2000, Pl. XVI, b.

Alfred André (1839-1919) was one of the most famous art restorers of the second half of the 19th century. He started out as a goldsmith, established his first Parisian workshop in 1859, and later specialized in the restoration and renovation of medieval and Renaissance objects. He worked on numerous original pieces in various precious materials which gave him an immense experience in these fields. His success and talent earned him many prestigious commissions and in 1885 he was awarded a prize by the Spanish royal family for restoring a rock crystal casket that was in the Escorial, now kept in the Palacio Real in Madrid. André also worked closely with the Rothschild family and the famous collector Frederic Spitzer. Numerous models and plaster casts from André's studio have been found, providing an extraordinary source of information. This discovery proves that the workshop was not only involved in restoration work, but also in the reproduction of old collectors' items and even in the creation of Renaissance style pieces. The model presented here meets Alfred André's high quality standards and was probably designed and created specifically for a member of the Rothschild family.