Retrato de una mujer

In 1577 a Cretan painter trained in Venice and Rome settled in Toledo, in central Spain, and began signing his work in Greek as Domenikos Theotokopoulos. Around that time he made this small portrait of a woman, painted in oil on paper and no larger than a playing card. She looks straight out at us, and beyond that little is certain. Her name has not come down to us, and scholars still weigh whether the hand is the master's own or someone close to him in his early Spanish circle. Works this size were kept in a cabinet or a drawer rather than hung on a wall, and this one has stayed in private hands ever since.