Montreal Museum of Art

COLOR All the paintings use the Spanish palette of black and white, with browns for skin tones and backgrounds. “Black is a traditional color for Spanish clothing,” Ms. Giménez said. “But it’s a simple black, not the kind we wear in New York.” The white, pleated ruff collar was fashionable until 1623, when Philip IV banned it as part of his campaign against luxury.

TIGHT FOCUS The composition of El Greco’s portrait of a knight directs the viewer’s gaze entirely to the sitter, and the restricted palette highlights the head and hands. (The nearer hand was eliminated in an early-20th-century restoration.) With the “Musketeer,” Ms. Giménez said, “I think Picasso wanted to show that part of the body, to focus on the head, which is very big, and to focus on hands, because of the art.”

Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artist Rights Society

STATUS Spanish portraiture was a man’s game, reflecting a patriarchal society where status was everything. Nobility was suggested by white lace cuffs and collar, the hilt of a sword and a proud pose. In 1633 the painter Vicente Carducho criticized the indiscriminate spread of portraiture, writing, “I have seen portraits of very ordinary men and women, and of some in mechanical trades (albeit rich) sitting at a desk or on a chair beneath a curtain, with the gravity of apparel and demeanor appropriate to kings and great lords.”