Discovered the first portrait that Velázquez made of the Count-Duke of Olivares when he arrived at the Court in 1626

The director of the Detroit Institute of Arts (Michigan), Salvador Salort-Ponshas published the discovery from the first of the portraits that Diego Velázquez made of the Count-Duke of Olivares when he arrived at the Court in 1626.

This was published in an article in ‘ARS Magazine’ by the director of the American art gallery, who explained that, unlike other portraits dated 1624 and 1625 – where Velázquez presented Olivares as a statesman in his office -, in this unpublished work he turns towards “military iconography.”

“Presents him as leader of the army“, explains Salort-Pons about the oil painting ‘The Count-Duke of Olivares in Armor’, which belongs to a private collection.

“In 1626, a recently arrived Velázquez at the Court was commissioned to make two portraits of Olivares and Francesco Barberini, nepote of Pope Urban VIII. The valid promoted this commission to commemorate the cardinal’s extraordinary visit to Madrid, with the aim of both works being exchanged. Sources of the time reveal that neither of the two effigies was to the Italian’s taste. While the one by Barberini remains lost, the one that was surely made by Olivares is presented at ARS 71,” he adds in his article.

The creation of this commission probably coincided with the visit of Cardinal Barberini, when Velázquez created a third prototype of the portrait of Olivares – he had already made other images of Olivares between 1623 and 1626 -.

Thus, in this portrait that Salort-Pons now presents, he is represented in armor and the red sash of a general. “Although the facial features largely correspond to the model devised by the painter in 1625, his hair appears slightly disheveled, highlighting a lock of hair that falls on the left side of his forehead.“he adds.