An Italian bronze bust of the Duke of Alba, wearing elaborately engraved & chased armour, with the collar and badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece and a sash across the left shoulder. Inscribed in a cartouche on the integrally-cast socle FER . DUX . ALBAE.

Ferdinando Alvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba (1507-1582) was for decades the leading general, statesman and adviser of the Habsburg Empire, serving both Charles V and his son Philip II, from 1567-1573 as governor of the Spanish Netherlands. He was also connected with the transatlantic slave trade and supported it politically.

The commission to Leoni from the Duke of Alba for three bronze busts of himself and his two Imperial masters, Charles V and Philip II, is recorded by Giorgio Vasari in his life of the sculptor. It probably occurred in 1555 while the Duke was serving as Captain General in Italy and Governor of Milan.