Don Álvaro de Luna

Álvaro de Luna was the powerful Constable of Castile and favourite of King Juan II, who dominated Castilian politics from the 1420s until his dramatic fall and execution in 1453. The Maestro de los Luna was named after the portraits or heraldic images associated with this family, and his depiction of Don Álvaro belongs to the tradition of donor portraiture in Castilian altarpiece painting — the powerful patron shown in devotional posture within a sacred context. Luna's controversial career and spectacular downfall made him a magnetic subject, and images associated with his patronage carry the weight of that political history.

The panel follows the Hispano-Flemish portrait convention established through contact with Netherlandish painting: the figure in three-quarter view against a neutral or heraldic ground, rendered with the descriptive realism of the Flemish oil tradition. Costume detail — armour, heraldic devices — is rendered with careful material specificity appropriate to the commemoration of a great noble.