In this artwork, how is the Provenance and copies discussed?
The painting's ownership between its first exhibition at the Pantheon in Rome in 1650 and the end of the eighteenth century is unknown. There is no record of the painting in Spain. The earliest record of the ownership of the painting was in essay written in 1765 by Francisco Preciado, Director of the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome. He stated that the painting owned by Cardinal Troiano Acquaviva d'Aragona (1696–1747) who lived in Rome.
The painting then reappears in the record as part of the dukes of Baranello's collection in Naples sometime in the 1700s. It was recorded as part of the collection of Sir William Hamilton, the British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1798. The inventory of his residence in Naples, Palazzo Sessa, lists  "a portrait of a Moresco slave by Velazquez." Hamilton sent the portrait and his other works of art to London for safekeeping, on board the ship HMS Fondroyant the flagship of Lord Nelson, when he left Naples. Hamilton returned to England heavily in debt and the portrait was auctioned at Christie's in 1801. The auction catalogue listed the painting as Velazquez's "Portrait of a Moorish Slave, that was in his service, and became a great Painter". It sold for 39 guineas and disappeared from the record again.
It later surfaces in the collection of Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 2nd Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle, Salisbury. In a catalogue of the Radnor family's collection, published in 1909, stated that the portrait was part of the collection by 1814 and may have been acquired in 1811. It remained in the ownership of the Radnor family for over 150 years until it was sold at Christie's in London for the record sum of £2,310,000 (or 2,200,000 guineas or $5,544,000) on 27 November 1970.  It was the first painting to sell for more than a £1,000,000, setting a new record for the price of paintings sold at auction.Alec Wildenstein of Wildenstein & Company bid for the painting acting on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting was acquired by the museum in 1971, principally through the Fletcher Fund, with an understanding the two million dollars would be paid back over time with income generated from the Rogers Fund, Fletcher Fund and other funds "restricted to buying funds". The painting is considered one of the "most important acquisitions in the Museum's history". Theodore Rousseau, when Curator-in-Chief of the museum, stated that the painting was "one of the finest works of art to come on the market in our time."The finest and best-known copy belongs to the Hispanic Society of America, New York. The Hispanic Society's copy is believed to have been painted from the original while it was in the collection of the earl of Radnor at Longford Castle.
Rogers Fund British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 2nd Earl of Radnor Spanish Academy in Rome Alec Wildenstein Provenance Royal Spanish Academy in Rome Naples Fletcher Fund Troiano Acquaviva d'Aragona Wildenstein & Company Earl of Radnor Rome Salisbury Pantheon Hispanic Society of America Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie Lord Nelson Christie's Longford Castle painting's ownership Sir William Hamilton portrait Francisco Preciado flagship Metropolitan Museum of Art HMS Fondroyant