Luis del Mazo

Mazo married Velázquez’s only surviving daughter, Francisca, in 1633 and worked in the studio of his famous father-in-law in Madrid. He was appointed painting teacher to the Infante Balthasar Carlos and eventually court painter to Philip IV of Spain in 1661. Despite lacking the secure handling and precision of his teacher, Mazo's style nonetheless evoques the brilliance of Velázquez’s loose and freely sketched techniques.

This small portrait of Mazo's son Luis is a study for a group portrait of the painter’s family of c.1664-5, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.