Portrait of Diego de Covarrubias
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait of Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva is a c.1600 oil on canvas painting by El Greco,[1] now in the El Greco Museum in Toledo.[2] It appears in Harold Wethey's catalogue raisonné of the artist's works as number 137 and in Tiziana Frati's as number 114;[3]
The artist arrived in Toledo in 1577, the year Diego de Covarrubias died, so the work cannot be from life[4] but is instead based on Sánchez Coello's 1574 portrait of him.[5] He may also be one of the figures in The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, in which case it may be a kind of posthumous tribute.[6]
It appears to be a pendent of Portrait of Antonio de Covarrubias (Wethey number 136) - in both works the only autograph section seems to be the head, with the rest being by his studio.[7] Both were probably in Pedro de Salazar y Mendoza's collection according to a 1629 inventory.[8] It was later in Toledo's provincial library.[9] Wethey also mentions a copy (X-163), formerly in Toledo Provincial Museum but now in an unknown location.[10]