diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/povray/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/povray/package.py
index 2c80552a74..ec0aee5177 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/povray/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/povray/package.py
@@ -63,8 +63,17 @@ class Povray(AutotoolsPackage):
     depends_on('libpng@1.2.5:', when='+libpng')
     depends_on('jpeg', when='+jpeg')
     depends_on('libtiff@3.6.1:', when='+libtiff')
+    depends_on('mkl', when='+mkl')
     depends_on('openexr@1.2:', when='+openexr')
 
+    # MKL conflicts
+    conflicts('+mkl', when='target=aarch64:',
+              msg='Intel MKL only runs on x86')
+    conflicts('+mkl', when='target=ppc64:',
+              msg='Intel MKL only runs on x86')
+    conflicts('+mkl', when='target=ppc64le:',
+              msg='Intel MKL only runs on x86')
+
     # This patch enables prebuild.sh to be invoked from any directory
     # (it immediately cds to the directory containing prebuild.sh)
     # This is better than a broken check that it was called from the