{"id":939127,"date":"2026-07-16T15:54:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/939127\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T15:54:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:54:23","slug":"detroit-institute-of-arts-director-finds-missing-velazquez-painting-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/939127\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Institute of Arts director finds missing Vel\u00e1zquez painting – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paintings by Diego Vel\u00e1zquez<\/a> are a rarity. Numbering around 120, with some 50 of those concentrated in the permanent collection of Madrid\u2019s Museo del Prado<\/a>, they can typically be found in the world\u2019s other great museums in the low single digits, if that, with less than ten thought to be in the hands of private collectors.<\/p>\n

This month it was revealed that those numbers may need some tweaking, according to Salvador Salort-Pons, the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts<\/a> (DIA) and a noted Vel\u00e1zquez scholar. He made his case in ARS Magazine<\/a>, the Madrid-based art quarterly, that he has located a 1626 Vel\u00e1zquez portrait of the Spanish statesman Gaspar de Guzm\u00e1n, Count-Duke of Olivares, in a private collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A favourite of the Spanish king Philip IV, Olivares was instrumental in installing the young Vel\u00e1zquez as court painter in 1623 and became a frequent subject for the artist. The newly discovered work, which may help shed light on Vel\u00e1zquez’s early years in Madrid, shows Olivares dressed in gold-trimmed armour set off by a glistening red sash.<\/p>\n

The discovery of The Count-Duke of Olivares in Armour was marked by a dramatic coincidence, Salort-Pons tells The Art Newspaper.<\/p>\n

Commissioned as a gift from Olivares to the cardinal Francesco Barberini, the powerful nephew of Pope Urban VIII, the work appeared in Barberini\u2019s Roman inventory but was then forgotten for centuries. Its potential existence only re-emerged in 1970, in published diary extracts of a 17th-century papal diplomat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Note the sash and armour in Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s Philip IV (1626-28) Courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid<\/p>\n

Salort-Pons, long interested in connections between Spain and Italy, looked for traces of the work in the early 2000s. Coming to the conclusion that the painting was either lost or in an unknown location, and long intrigued by the topic, he began to plan a small DIA exhibition in 2024 that would bring together other noted examples of Velazquez\u2019s 1620s depictions of Olivares. Then, in 2025, he says, \u201csomeone emailed me\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Olivares portrait was being cleaned in a Madrid restoration studio. Previously, it was believed to be \u201cfrom the workshop of Velazquez\u201d, says Salort-Pons. Asked to have a look, he made his way to Madrid at the end of 2025. \u201cWhen I saw it,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI recommended doing technical analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results were astounding. X-rays, ultraviolet imaging and infrared analysis placed the painting firmly in the artist\u2019s works of the 1620s, Salort-Pons says. There was \u201ca perfect match of the pigments\u201d that Vel\u00e1zquez used at the time, he notes, and the thread count of the canvas matched the thread count of three other Velazquez works, including a portrait of the young king, Philip IV (1626\u201328), also in armour and sash. In addition, x-rays revealed important alterations in composition\u2014another key aspect of Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s early Madrid works.<\/p>\n

Initially, Salort-Pons says, Vel\u00e1zquez depicted Olivares in a black outfit with what appears to be fur lining, changing his mind to portray him instead in military garb. Similarly, analysis of the Prado portrait of the king revealed black garb that was later replaced with armour and sash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paulus Pontius\u2019s Gaspar de Gusman, Count of Olivarez (around 1626) Courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York<\/p>\n

Before his article came out earlier this month, Salort-Pons kept quiet. \u201cI told my wife,\u201d he says, and he notified the Prado of the discovery. He is currently finalising the loan of the armour portrait of the king to the DIA show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez and Olivares: Early Years at Court<\/a> will open in Detroit in January 2027, featuring Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s well-known 1620s portraits of the statesman from New York City\u2019s Hispanic Society<\/a> and Brazil\u2019s S\u00e3o Paulo Museum of Art<\/a>. Additionally, the show will include a 1626 print by the Flemish artist Paulus Pontius that combines allegorical elements from an Olivares portrait by Peter Paul Rubens<\/a>, who himself was a visitor to the Spanish court in the 1620s, with what seems to be a bust based on the newly resurfaced Vel\u00e1zquez portrait.<\/p>\n

The discovery is \u201ca big deal\u201d, says the Vel\u00e1zquez scholar Giles Knox, a professor of art history at Indiana University Bloomington. These early works are important in charting the artist\u2019s progress, he says, which took place at a time of great suspicion and hostility. \u201cThe old-guard painters hated him,\u201d Knox says, forcing the young artist to \u201cprove that he was worthy of his position as painter to the king\u201d.<\/p>\n

The resurfaced Olivares portrait attests to the young painter\u2019s concerns. On Olivares\u2019s shoulder, at right, there is space for two rivets in the armor but one is missing, creating a subtle but compelling trompe l\u2019oeil effect in the form of a tiny hole. This detail\u2014missing from the otherwise similar Pontius print\u2014was added \u201cto show Velazquez\u2019s great skill as a painter,\u201d Salort-Pons says.<\/p>\n

The logical place for a work of this caliber and importance is the auction block, and a fitting permanent home for it would be the Prado itself. The Madrid museum, in spite of its vast Vel\u00e1zquez holdings, does not possess any of the artist\u2019s early Olivares painted portraits. But Salort-Pons is careful not to reveal any details about the painting\u2019s fate beyond its place in the upcoming DIA show. \u201cI will tell you one thing,\u201d he adds. \u201cIf I owned it, I would keep it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paintings by Diego Vel\u00e1zquez are a rarity. Numbering around 120, with some 50 of those concentrated in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":939128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,378157,357248,25055,171,10158,378156,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-939127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-design","tag-detroit-institute-of-arts","tag-diego-velazquez","tag-discoveries","tag-entertainment","tag-museums-heritage","tag-salvador-salort-pons","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}