In October 2015, the Prado Museum received a significant donation that will enrich its already vast art collection. Sir John Elliott, a distinguished Hispanist and member of the Royal Board of Trustees of the Prado Museum as an Honorary Trustee, offered the museum a bust portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares, a central figure in his studies of Spanish history in the Modern Age.
The donated portrait is part of a group of more than six identified works that derive from an original housed in the Hermitage Museum. Of these replicas, the work ceded to the Prado stands out for its adherence to the original composition and for the spontaneity in its pictorial technique, which gives it a superior quality. This type of reproduction was common at the time when Diego Velázquez served as a court portraitist, with numerous images of royalty and their closest ministers being in demand.
The need to maintain decorum and ensure quality in the representations of the king and his favorite led to trust in the figure of the court painter, who, with the help of his workshop, was responsible for producing faithful replicas of Velázquez’s originals. These images, in addition to serving a symbolic and political function, guaranteed an adequate reproduction of the most influential faces of the Spanish court.
Elliott’s donation goes beyond the delivery of a work of art; it also symbolizes the connection between the visionary British researcher and the Prado Museum, as well as with the Hall of Realms, for whose enrichment the Count-Duke of Olivares worked. This link highlights the importance of preserving and disseminating Spain’s visual history, a task that the museum has been carrying out since its foundation. The arrival of this work at the Prado not only expands its collection but also deepens the appreciation of the country’s historical and cultural legacy.
Referrer: MiMub in Spanish
