Appointed archbishop of Toledo at the age of ten and, one year later, cardinal, Don Fernando, the third son of King Philip III of Spain, had political ambitions more than anything else. In 1634 he became the stadtholder of the Spanish Netherlands and participated in numerous campaigns up until his early death in 1641. This portrait was painted during Rubens’s second stay in Madrid. The influence of Titian, whose work he studied there, can be recognised in the streaked highlighting and broken shades of red.