The last farewell
1887. Oil on canvas.Not on display
The figures depicted are Leonor Núñez de Guzmán (1310–1351), mistress of King Alfonso XI of Castile (1311–1350), bidding farewell to her son Fadrique Alfonso of Castile (1333–1358), Lord of Haro. They appear before Maria of Portugal (1313–1357), wife of King Alfonso XI of Castile. The painting was also included in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1887 (No. 37), where it was awarded a Certificate of Honour.
The Catalogue of the National Exhibition of Fine Arts describes how the widowed queen took Leonor de Guzmán from Carmona, where the queen had imprisoned her, to Llerena, revelling in the defeat of her old rival. Leonor had a son in Llerena, Fadrique, Master of Santiago, who asked for permission to see his mother, and was granted it. The meeting was tender and painful; no words, mother and son could only manage to exchange sighs and sobs; until the jailer forced them to give each other a last embrace. This was the last, because they never saw each other again, and the very silence of that stormy scene seemed to foreshadow the catastrophe that would soon occur. (The Orchard, volume IV, chapter XIX.)
