3-098-580 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The final farewell, 1887. The figures depicted are Leonor Núñez de Guzmán (1310-1351), mistress of King Alfonso XI of Castile (1311-1350), bidding farewell to her son Fadrique Alfonso of Castile (1333-1358), Lord of Haro, before Maria of Portugal (1313-1357), wife of King Alfonso XI of Castile. The Catalogue of the National Exhibition of Fine Arts described the scene thus: In Carmona, the queen dowager took custody of Doña Leonor de Guzmán - who was being held prisoner there - and brought her to Llerena, relishing the sight of her old rival humbled. Upon their arrival in Llerena, Doña Leonor's son, Don Fadrique - Master of the Order of Santiago - requested and was granted permission to see his mother. The meeting was tender yet agonizing; mother and son exchanged no words - only sighs and sobs - until the jailer forced them to share a final embrace. It was indeed the last, for they never saw one another again, and the very silence of that harrowing scene seemed to foreshadow the catastrophe that would soon follow.