Francisco Belda y Pérez de Nueros, Third Marquis of Cabra (b. El Coronil, Sevilla 1860 - d. Madrid 1931), was an art-lover from an early age, an amateur painter and a key figure in the history of the Banco de España Collection. He served the bank for fifty years, moving up through the ranks to be appointed First Deputy Governor in 1927.

He made many significant contributions to the bank, but one in particular stands out: in the late 1890s Belda discovered six portraits in a back-room of the bank's headquarters building on Calle Atocha. They were of several governors of the Banco Nacional de San Carlos —José del Toro Zambrano, Francisco Cabarrús, Francisco Javier Larumbe, Vicente Joaquín Osorio de Moscoso (Count of Altamira)) and Miguel Fernández Durán y López de Tejeda (Marquis of Tolosa)— and of King Charles III of Spain. His artistic awareness and expertise led him to believe that they were by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. Historian Elena Serrano García writes that he was so convinced of this that when some specialists cast doubt on his claim he pored over the surviving archives of the Banco de San Carlos until he found records of the payments in the minute books of the works being commissioned and in the accounting ledgers.

^{Francisco de Goya y Lucientes: Portraits of José de Toro-Zambrano y Ureta (1785), Francisco Cabarrús y Lalanne (c. 1787) and Francisco Javier Larumbe y Rodríguez (1787)}

^{Francisco de Goya y Lucientes: Portraits of Vicente Joaquín Osorio de Moscoso y Guzmán Fernández de Córdoba y la Cerda, Thirteenth Count of Altamira (c. 1786), Miguel Fernández Durán y López de Tejeda, Second Marquis of Tolosa (c. 1786) and King Charles III of Spain (c. 1786)}

Several of these documents are on show in 2328 reales de vellón, our exhibition on the origins of the Collection, which is open until 26 February 2022. The title of the exhibition is the amount recorded as paid to Goya for the first portrait that he painted for the bank: that of José del Toro Zambrano. That portrait and those of Cabarrús, Larumbe, the Count of Altamira, the Marquis of Tolosa and King Charles III are all on show. They highlight the essential role of Goya’s work in the setting up and subsequent status of the Banco de España Collection.

^{Francisco Belda y Pérez de Nueros, Third Marquis of Cabra: Portrait by Benito Fariña Cisneros (1903)}

Francisco Belda y Pérez de Nueros was a descendant of Cordoba-born politician Martín Belda y Mencía del Barrio, Governor of the Banco de España from February 1878 to March 1881, from whom he inherited the title of Marquis of Cabra. He maintained lifelong links with the world of art. As a young man he received several diplomas and medals from the Escuela de Artes y Oficios arts and trade school in Madrid, and in 1903, during his tenure as Deputy Secretary to the bank, he painted a strongly expressive portrait of Deputy Governor Benito Fariña Cisneros, another major personage in the history of the institution.

^{Antonio María Esquivel y Suárez de Urbina: portrait of Pedro Sainz de Andino (1831)}

Belda was friends with numerous artists and art historians, and was an active collector in his own right. He acquired a portrait of jurist Pedro Sainz de Andino, who drew up the articles of association of the Banco de San Fernando, painted by Antonio María Esquivel in the 1830s. Elena Serrano García writes that he offered this portrait to the Board of Directors of the Banco de España for the same price of one thousand pesetas that he had paid for it. It can also be seen in 2328 reales de vellón.

^{José Villegas y Cordero: portrait of Francisco Belda y Pérez de Nueros, Third Marquis of Cabra (1905)}

The Banco de España owns a portrait of him painted in 1905 by Seville-born José Villegas y Cordero. The bank had commissioned the same artist a few years earlier to paint a portrait of King Alfonso XIII. He also produced a number of designs for bank-notes using pared-back, symbolistic forms to suggest the concept of fiat value. He depicts Belda with an unaffected, approachable, kindly expression in a portrait in oils with a surprisingly bold composition. The painting is closely linked to another produced by Villegas at about the same time of Madrid-born writer, journalist and painter Jacinto Octavio Picón (1903), now owned by the Museo del Prado (Prado Museum).