Painted with great freedom, this picture once formed part of the exceptional collection of the celebrated statesman and connoisseur, Don Gaspar Méndez de Haro y Guzmán, 7th Marqués del Carpio y Eliche and 5th Conde Duque de Olivares (1629-1687), the nephew of Don Gaspar de Guzmán, Conde Duque de Olivares, the famous valido (prime minister) of King Philip IV of Spain, and of Don Baltasar de Zúñiga, Conde de Monterrey. He was appointed Ambassador to the Holy See and subsequently Viceroy of Naples and formed one of the most important picture collections in Europe in the third quarter of the seventeenth century, including Raphael's Alba Madonna now in the National Gallery, Washington, Correggio's School of Love and Velázquez's Rokeby Venus, both now in the National Gallery, London.