Portrait of Cardinal Gaspar de Borja y Velasco

Cardinal Gaspar de Borja y Velasco at the Stadel Museum was a Spanish prelate who served as Viceroy of Naples and Ambassador to Rome. Painted around 1644, this portrait captures a powerful churchman-diplomat who represented Spanish interests at the papal court during the Thirty Years War. Velázquez's uncompromising naturalism and psychological penetration, combined with his revolutionary loose handling of paint in his late work, made him one of the most admired painters in history, his technique anticipating Impressionism and influencing Manet, Sargent, and countless others.

The cardinal's red vestments are painted with the nuanced handling of crimson that Velazquez perfected. Different reds — the matte of the biretta, the sheen of the mozzetta, the depth of the chair — are distinguished through variations in brushwork and transparency.