Portrait of Diego Velázquez
by NERI, Pietro Martire, Oil on canvas, 78 x 57 cm
In Rome, the painter had a professional relationship, not to mention friendship, with Vel�zquez, the prestigious Sevillian painter represented in the present canvas. The sitter’s gaze is captivated by what he is painting, as he emerges from a dark background holding palette and brushes.
Even though it might seem inspired by the self-portrait in Vel�zquez’s Las Meninas, it could have been conceived with the sitter present.