Fray Diego de Deza, Archbishop of Seville

In 1631 the Dominican college of Santo Tomás in Seville wanted a portrait of its founder, and its founder had been dead for more than a century. Diego de Deza set the college up in 1517. He had taught theology at Salamanca and tutored the heir to the Spanish throne, and Columbus credited him with getting the voyage a hearing from Ferdinand and Isabella. He also followed Torquemada as Grand Inquisitor. Zurbarán had no sitter and no reliable likeness to work from, so the face here is invented. What is exact is the office. Over the black and white Dominican habit goes the white roquet, on his head the biretta, at his chest a cross set with stones, and on the table beside the chair a hand bell and a book. The Latin line along the top calls him archbishop-elect of Toledo, a see he was given in 1523 and never took up. The canvas hung in the college library until the 19th century.