A newly identified Diego Velázquez portrait may sharpen the story of the painter’s first years at the Spanish court — and the evidence, according to the Detroit Institute of Arts’ director, comes from inventories, diaries, and the painting itself.
Salvador Salort-Pons, director of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), says he has identified a rediscovered 1626 portrait by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) titled “The Count-Duke of Olivares in Armor.” The work depicts Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimental, the Count-Duke of Olivares, who served as prime minister of Spain from 1623 to 1643 and was a valido, or court favorite, of King Philip IV. Salort-Pons published the findings in the current issue of ARS Magazine, the publication run by the Museo Prado in Madrid.
The painting is said to belong to a private collection, though Salort-Pons does not provide recent provenance. In his essay, he argues that Velázquez painted the work soon after arriving in Madrid from Seville in 1626, when Olivares commissioned him to make two portraits: one of the count-duke and one of Francesco Barberini, the Italian cardinal and nephew of Pope Urban VIII, to mark Barberini’s diplomatic mission to the Spanish court. The idea was that the portraits would be exchanged, with each sitter keeping the other’s likeness. Contemporary accounts suggest neither portrait satisfied Barberini. The portrait of Barberini is still missing; the one believed to be of Olivares is the work now under discussion.
Salort-Pons builds his case on research first assembled by art historian Enriqueta Harris, who published Cassiano dal Pozzo’s diaries in 1970. Dal Pozzo, Barberini’s secretary, recorded details of the visit that had not previously been documented, including the existence of the two portraits. He described the Barberini likeness as having a “melancholy” and “severe” air, and noted that Madrid painter Juan van der Hamen was later commissioned to replace Velázquez’s version. That second portrait is also believed to be lost.
The attribution is further supported by Barberini’s inventories. A 1631 list of his Roman collection records a portrait of the Count-Duke “in armor,” and Salort-Pons notes in a footnote that the historical term used for the support corresponds to dimensions close to the newly discovered painting, which measures 60 x 48 cm (23.6 x 18.9 inches). The work also appears in Barberini’s post-mortem inventory of 1679.
The discovery arrives as the DIA prepares “Velázquez & Olivares: Early Years at Court,” an exhibition opening in January 2027 and focused on the artist’s rise in the 1620s from a young painter from Seville to official court artist for Philip IV. Three other portraits of the Count-Duke by Velázquez are already known, held by the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, the Hispanic Society of America in New York, and the Madrid-based Varez Fisa Collection. If the attribution holds, the newly identified canvas would add a crucial piece to Velázquez’s early court career.
