This paper examines the opening and the function of the gesture of Cristóbal Suárez de Ribera in his portrait by Velázquez. The portrait was painted in 1620, that is two years after the subject’s death, and was placed above the tomb of Cristóbal Suárez in the Chapel of San Hermenegildo in Seville, which he had founded from 1606 to 1616. As was the custom for funerary sculptures, he is shown kneeling in the attitude of a prayer. However he is pointing towards the main altar which contains a polychrome statue of San Hermenegildo by Martínez Montañés. This gesture is exceptional for a funerary portraiture, which leads us to consider that the portrait performs a specific function in the Chapel. In this point, showing how the portrait was hung in the Chapel in the seventeenth century, we make clear that Suárez in this portrait plays a role similar to the intercession. According to the documents, Suárez was known as a leading figure in the veneration of San Hermenegildo at that time, which makes us consider that Velázquez painted the portrait in a peculiar manner so that Suárez could seem to be playing a role of mediator between the members of the Hermandad de San Hermenegildo and the statue of the saint in the main altar.