Don Fernando de Silva Álvarez de Toledo, 12th Duke of Alba

It is one of the 32 paintings from the Casa de Alba after the death of the XIII Duchess of Alba. It is cited as number 263 in the inventory made at the death of the 7th Duke of Berwick and 14th Duke of Alba, Don Carlos Miguel Fitz-James Stuart.

Engraved in 1786 by Manuel Salvador Carmona, who enclosed the figure in a frame with a socket in which he placed the weapons of the Casa de Alba adorned with flags and wreaths of laurel, and between them and the portrait, on a tablet, the inscription: “His Excellency Mr. Fernando de Silva Álvarez de Toledo 12th Duke of Alba Captain General of the Royal Armies of S. M. =Spiritus etvita redit bonis post mortem ducibus. (Horat. Od. 8. lib. 4 Carm.)”. In the Cerralbo Museum, a table of proportions very similar to this one (84 x 71 cm) is preserved, with an unfinished replica with the finished head and the only visible hand.