Italian School c. 1600
A Portrait of a Knight of the Order of Santiago, Bust-length, in black Costume embroidered with the Order’s red Cross of Saint James with a white Ruff
Essay:
From 1523 the Spanish crown held the office of Grand Master of the Order of Santiago, although entrance was not restricted to nobles of Spain exclusively, and many of the members were prominent Catholic Europeans in general. The sitter here, in order to join the Order of Santiago must have proved that he, his parents, and his grandparents were of noble descent by blood and not by privilege, and had never worked in manual or industrial labour. Stylistically, this miniature portrait would indicate an artist working in Bologna in the circle around Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) and his brother, Agostino (1557-1602) and cousin, Ludovico (1555-1619), whose oeuvre is notoriously difficult to distinguish.