Description
This painting is a full-length portrait of Don Diego Félix de Esquivel y Aldama, mayor of Vitoria, Spain. He wears gloves and a dark doublet with the red cross emblem of the Order of Santiago on his chest.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, respected member of the court of Carlos II of Spain and artist of this work, painted very few portraits and is best known for his emotional religious subjects. The impassive expression of the sitter and the realism of detail in this portrait are characteristic of 16th-century portraiture conventions, but the painting is 17th-century in its dramatic chiaroscuro (intensified light and shadow) and simplicity of setting. The portrait may well have been executed in 1658 when Murillo, a lifelong resident of Seville, and Don Diego were both in Madrid, but the painting's date is not yet firmly established.