Diego de Mexía, Marquess of Leganés

Diego de Mexía, first Marquess of Leganés, Grand Commander of León, Thirteen in the Order of Santiago and Duke of Sanlúcar la Mayor, was a good general, notwithstanding the blows of fate. He was the son of Diego de Mexía y de Obando, Count of Uceda, and had been a page to the Archduke Alberto and the Archduchess Isabel in Flanders. He was a passionate collector who admired Rubens and van Dyck, and had both these great artists paint him in Flanders. He used his immense fortune (as Novoa tells us) to buy pictures by the most famous Flemish and Italian masters of the century.

The general is elegantly dressed in black, and is standing by a small table covered with a red tablecloth; his right hand is pointing in a graceful gesture of abandonment. A curtain reduces the area of darkness in the background, which in turn contrasts with the light on his face. The portrait would have been painted by Van Dyck between 1630 and 1634, on his return from the Low Countries, and may have been created with the intention of getting closer access to the court. The Marquess’ bearing represents an imposition of traditional Spanish etiquette in terms of portraiture, which was different from the affected attitude typical of the Flemish master. Van Dyck had been appointed painter to the court of the Infant Isabel Clara Eugenia.