Detroit Institute of Arts director finds missing Velázquez painting

Salvador Salort-Pons, director of the Detroit Institute of Arts and a Velázquez scholar, reported in ARS Magazine that he has identified a previously overlooked Diego Velázquez portrait from 1626 in a private collection. The painting depicts Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares—an influential favorite of King Philip IV who helped secure Velázquez’s appointment as court painter in 1623—and shows him in gold-trimmed armor with a red sash. Salort-Pons said the work, commissioned as a gift from Olivares to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, appeared in a Roman Barberini inventory but was later forgotten until references resurfaced in 1970 via published diary extracts of a 17th-century papal diplomat. After the painting surfaced during cleaning in a Madrid restoration studio and was previously attributed to Velázquez’s workshop, Salort-Pons traveled to Madrid in late 2025 and recommended technical analysis; X-rays, ultraviolet imaging, and infrared analysis reportedly matched pigments and canvas thread counts to other Velázquez works from the 1620s and revealed compositional changes consistent with the artist’s practice.

Read the full article at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events