Diego Felipe de Guzmán, Marquês de Leganés

In 1634 Van Dyck was court painter to Charles I in London, but that year he crossed back to Flanders for a spell, and in Brussels he painted this Spanish soldier and diplomat. Diego Felipe de Guzmán, Marquis of Leganés, served Philip IV as a general, and he was also one of the great collectors of the age, owning works by Titian, Ribera and Van Dyck himself. Look at how finished the face is against the plainer handling of the clothes and the background. Scholars read that unevenness, together with visible changes to the right arm, as a sign that this was the first version Van Dyck worked out, before a more polished copy was made for presentation.