Portrait of Don Pedro de Barberana y Aparregui facts for kids
Portrait of Don Pedro de Barberana y Aparregui is a famous painting. It was made with oil paints on a canvas. The artist was Diego Velázquez, or at least experts believe it was him. He painted it around the years 1631 to 1633. Today, you can see this painting at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. It has been there since 1981.
Velázquez used a special way to paint the person's shape and the shiny parts of their clothes. He used similar methods in other paintings, like the Portrait of Don Diego del Corral y Arellano and Portrait of Doña Antonia de Ipeñarrieta y Galdós and her son don Luis. In this painting, he made the background very simple and empty. This helps the person in the painting stand out even more.
Who Owned the Painting?
We don't have any old papers that talk about this painting when it was first made. The first time anyone wrote about it as a Velázquez painting was in 1992. An art expert named José López-Rey said it was by Velázquez. He called it A Knight of Calatrava. At that time, the painting was owned by a private collector in New York.
Before that, the painting was bought in Europe around 1950. Other art experts agreed with López-Rey. Another expert, José Gudiol Ricart, figured out who the person in the painting was. He said it was Pedro de Barberana. Pedro was born in Briones, Spain, in 1579 and died there in 1649. He was an important person: a lord, a high treasurer, and a member of the king's special council.
In October 1630, Pedro de Barberana joined a special group called the Order of Calatrava. You can see the cross of this order on his chest and on his cape in the painting. However, Velázquez was in Italy in October 1630. This means he must have painted the portrait after that year, once he was back in Spain.
See also
In Spanish: Don Pedro de Barberana y Aparregui para niños
