Death mask of Cardinal Tavera

 All the portraits of Cardinal Tavera, who of his own free will, according to his biographer Pedro Salazar de Mendoza, died without leaving any record of his image, derive, immediately or mediately, from this death mask of Cardinal Tavera modelled in plaster by Alonso de Berruguete. It was evidently used as a model both for the face of the Cardinal's tomb, which the sculptor made in Carrara marble, the last of his works, and for the portrait he painted of him on stone and which is preserved in the archives of the Hospital Tavera as an overdoor. It is very likely that El Greco used it to immortalise the founder of the Hospital de San Juan Bautista in Toledo around 1608, but if not directly, he must have based it on the two aforementioned works, but brought back to life with colour and lively brushstrokes.