Portrait of a young girl from the Palafox family, aged 1, full-length, in a white dress trimmed with lace and wearing a white lace bonnet, holding a bird

According to the inscription, the sitter was a member of the Palafox family, Marqueses de Arixa, a notable Spanish family from Aragon. It has been suggested that she may have been the niece of Don Juan de Palafox (1600-1659), chaplain to Maria of Austria, daughter of Philip III. Don Juan de Palafox was elected Bishop of La Puebla de los Angeles, Mexico by Philip VI in 1639, a position that he held until 1655. He also held political office in the New World, acted briefly as Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico) in 1642 (when he established laws for governing the University, the Audencia, and the legal profession). Palafox was an enthusiastic patron of the arts, and it was during his tenure in La Puebla that the city became the musical centre of Mexico.
Attached to the child's right shoulder is a pendant with the statuette of Our Lady of the Pillar, the patron virgin of Spain and Hispanics, whose shrine is in Zaragoza, Aragon. Religious talismen such as this one were thought to protect infants against sickness. Another example can be seen in Santiago Morán's Portrait of the Infanta Margarita Francisca in the Prado, Madrid.
Bartolomé Gonzaléz continued in the court tradition of painting, exemplified Antonis Mor, Alonso Sánchez Coello and Pantoja de la Cruz. He established a thriving studio and, from 1608, produced more than a hundred portraits of members of the royal family and the court.