In this solemn portrait of a cardinal, seated, resting his feet on a colourful cushion resting on a brightly coloured carpet and dressed in a white robe, red tablecloth and a purple muceta fastened with purple buttons and lined with ermine through which the pectoral cross peeps out, Carreño Miranda conveys the pompous solemnity that surrounded the cardinals at court, painting him "...".in habit"They were dressed in the attire they wore during ceremonies in the palace chapel, when etiquette required them to be offered a chair and a seat.
Although the number of cardinals linked to the House of Medinaceli is naturally very limited, it has not been possible to identify the person portrayed here. He has traditionally been known as the "Cardinal Sandoval y Rojas"This identification is ruled out due to the absence of any affinity with the faces of the cardinals of that lineage, all of whom are known from other portraits. Pascual de Aragón, viceroy of Naples and, as archbishop of Toledo, a member of the regency council, has also been suggested, but this has been ruled out due to the absence of any resemblance to portraits of his youth. Finally, it has been suggested that he was the brother of the 8th Count of Santisteban, the patriarch Antonio de Benavides, whose effigy we do not know, an identity that would fit poorly both with the pectoral cross he carries, which is not the patriarchal cross, and with his absence in the known inventories of the collection of the Dukes of Santisteban.
On the other hand, the inscription that the Cardinal is holding between his fingers has always been read as ".Ib...Jua Carreño...". Only the name of the painter, in the second line, would correspond to this transcription. In the first line, preceded by another with a cross, he seems to have wanted to write "...".Yllmo"followed by an expression that is difficult to read.