Fernando de Valdés y Llanos was from the family of the Counts of Toreno. He was appointed Bishop of Tereul in 1625, Bishop Elect of León in 1632, & in 1633 Archbishop of Granada & President of the Council of Castille, a post comparable to that of Lord Chancellor which prevented him from leaving Madrid. He died in 1639. It is probable that this is a posthumous portrait, a work of the early 1640s.