Portrait of the Archbishop Ambrosio Spínola y Guzmán

As Navarrete points out in his recent monograph on Murillo, the link between the artist and Spinola was probably their mutual friend Canon Justino de Neve, a patron who effectively conveyed his religious beliefs and found in Murillo the perfect vehicle for publicizing his devotions. It is known that the artist painted his portrait, which appeared in the 1687 inventory of Juan Arias de Saavedra, Marquis of Moscoso. The archbishop is portrayed within the usual frame simulating the usual false decorative border, but the work bears an inscription with the date 1684, which was added later, as it must have been painted before 1682, the year of Murillo’s death. Its composition was copied by Pedro Núñez de Villavicencio for the print published in 1681, although probably on the model of the Murillo that belonged to the Marquis of Moscoso…