This painting is a slightly reduced version of a picture executed by Zurbarán and his workshop for the convent church of San Juan of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy in Seville (Private collection, formerly with Duits, London; see O. Delenda et al., Francisco de Zurbarán, 1598-1664: Catálogo Razonado y Crítico, Madrid, 2010, II, pp. 145 and 452-3, no. II-231h). Dr. Odile Delenda, to whom we are grateful, has confirmed that the present picture was painted in Zurbaran's workshop in around 1640 (private communication, December 2017).

The convent was founded in the early seventeenth century, with the basic monastic church completed in 1612. The monastery’s decoration occupied much of the ensuing century, with important decorative works undertaken by some of the leading painters of Golden Age in Spain, including Juan Valdés Leal, Bartolomé Murillo and Francisco de Zurbarán. On 29 August 1628, Fray Juan de Herrera, the superior of the convent, signed a contract with Zurbarán to paint twenty-two large paintings displaying the life of the Order’s founder, Saint Peter Nolasco, for the monastery’s second cloister. The artist was also charged with executing a series of works depicting martyred monks of the Order of Mercy (see ibid., pp. 450-7), and it is from this series that the prototype for the present work originated.

Sancho of Aragon (1250-1275), a martyr of the Reconquista and a member of the Order of Mercy, is here shown dressed in the white habit of the Order and wearing the mitre of the Archbishopric of Toledo. Sancho had been born an Infante of the Kingdom of Aragon, the son of Jaume I and his wife Violante of Hungary (1215-1251). At a young age, he joined the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, under the tutelage of Saint Peter Pascual, a theologian, bishop and later martyr of the Order and likewise included in Zurbarán’s series for the Seville convent (Seville, Museo de Bellas Artes). In 1266, Sancho was made Archbishop of Toledo at the age of just sixteen. Pursuing an active involvement in the expansion of the Christian kingdoms in Spain, he took responsibility for raising troops in 1275 to fight against Islamic forces which had attached a small region in Andalusia. On 21 October that year, Sancho led his army into battle at Martos. His forces, however, were severely outnumbered and suffered a crushing defeat. Sancho was taken prisoner and executed under the orders of the Granadine and Moroccan Muslim leaders. His body was recovered and returned to Toldeo Cathedral, his episcopal see, where it was buried and quickly began to be venerated for the Infante’s heroic death and his role in defending Spain during the Reconquista.