Portrait of Don Justino de Neve

On 5 August 1665, the feast of Our Lady of the Snows, Seville reopened the church of Santa María la Blanca after rebuilding. The work had been run by Justino de Neve, a canon of the cathedral, whose own surname echoed the church's dedication to Mary of the Snows, and he had brought in his friend Murillo to paint for it. The same year the painter made this portrait of him, aged 40, and gave it to him as a present, as the Latin line on the tablet beneath the coat of arms records. Neve sits in his black robes with a small book in his fingers, as if he had just looked up from his prayers. The clock on the table shows mid-afternoon, an hour of prayer, and at his feet sits the little dog with a red bow that early writers singled out for praise.