The inscription in this portrait identifies the sitter as Miguel de Mañara, founder and benefactor of the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville. The same inscription appears on a portrait of Mañara with a skull, set before an oval trompe l'oeil frame, by Juan de Valdés Leal (1622-1690), but the two portraits clearly depict different men. The present sitter wears the red emblem of the Order of Calatrava, a Spanish military order that was awarded to members of the aristocracy, and this is perhaps why the sitter has been erroneously identified as Mañara. He too belonged to the Order and wears the emblem in the aforementioned portrait as well as in Valdés Leal's large canvas showing Don Miguel de Mañara reading the rule of the Brotherhood of Holy Charity (Hospital de la Caridad, Seville).