Retrato del cardenal don Fernando Niño de Guevara

The man in red was one of the most feared officials in Spain. Fernando Niño de Guevara, from an old Toledo family, was made a cardinal in 1596, and three years later he became Inquisitor General, the head of the Spanish Inquisition. El Greco painted him around 1600, during the years both men were in Toledo. This half-length picture is a smaller relative of the celebrated full-length portrait now in New York, where the cardinal sits gripping the arm of his chair, his spectacles catching the light. Here the face carries the same watchful tension, the eyes turned slightly aside. Niño de Guevara held the Inquisition post only until 1602, then spent his last years as Archbishop of Seville.