Not much is known to date about the life of José María de Alcíbar, who is thought to have been born much earlier than 1751, the date on which he signed his oldest known painting. According to his will, he was born in Texcoc, a city seven leagues to the east, facing to the north of Mexico City. The legitimate son of Juan de Alcíbar and Teresa de Mirandad, he was the youngest of four: Anastasio, Antonio, Anna and José María. We also know he was single and had no children, though he took care of his nephews and nieces. His family must have moved to the capital city of New Spain when he was very young, which gave him access to the main painting workshops in the city, where he died on 18 February 1803. This pair of works by Alcíbar, without any known precedents as regards to composition and design, and displaying magnificent technical skill, work as a social and psychological X-ray of the Zevallos family and their environment. Although they present two pictorial portraits, that is, two artistic works open to being understood on their own aesthetic merits, the aim here isn’t just to enjoy and comment on them but to read into them, in the same way as historians read into any written text.