Cardinal Borja
Ca. 1721. Oil on canvas. Not on displayA portrait of Cardinal Carlos de Borja Cetellas Ponce de León (1664-1733), son of the IX Duke of Gandia. He was one of the most influential personages in Spain during the first half of the eighteenth century and Felipe V´s Main Chaplain. He wears the garb of a Cardinal, with his left hand on the biretta that rests on a red velvet pillow on a table at the right of the composition. On the left are two figures, a Church member and what may be the painter´s self-portrait. This is one of the artist´s finest works and is undoubtedly his best portrait. It belonged to the Duke and Duchess of Osuna and later to the Marquis of Torecilla. It was bequeathed to the Museum by the Count of La Cimera in 1944 The model´s name appears on a piece of paper lying on the table.