It shows the Spanish diplomat José Nicolás de Azara, a friend of the artist and was completed in Florence in January 1774.

Azara also commissioned Domenico Cunego to engrave the portrait in burin and drypoint in 1781 from a drawing by Francisco Javier Ramos, a Spanish artist who had studied with Mengs.

The painting remained in the subject's family after his death and between 1928 and 1976 they loaned it to the Museum of Fine Arts of Zaragoza.

[1][2][3] The painting was bought by the Museo del Prado in November 2012 for €180,000 from Azara's descendants.

Another version of the portrait, virtually identical and considered Mengs' autograph, although painted on canvas, is exhibited at the Getty Center, in Los Angeles.