This unknown man is distinctive enough, with his carefully trimmed moustache and beard. The skull and book could denote a variety of professions but are unlikely to be a self-portrait, as was wrongly thought in the nineteenth century. The old attribution to Alonso Cano (1601-1667) has had to be abandoned, as there are no closely comparable portraits in his work. The painting formed part of two of the most important nineteenth- century collections of Spanish painting outside Spain; firstly that of King Louis Philippe in France and later in exile at Claremont, Surrey, and secondly the Stirling Maxwell Collection in Scotland.

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