Portrait of Don Gaspar de Guzman y Pimentel, Count-Duke of Olivares
by VELÁZQUEZ, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y, Oil on canvas, 67 x 55 cm
The sitter of the portrait was the prime minister of Philip IV. He began his career with a dizzying rise and ended it with a no-less-vertiginous fall, spending his last years in exile. When his star was ascending he introduced the young Vel�zquez to the king, and the artist painted his powerful patron several times. In the present portrait, made shortly before Olivares suffered a series of defeats in both his foreign policy projects and court intrigues, his face clearly betrays fatigue and disillusionment.