Escuela Espanola. / Alonso Cano.

Title

Escuela Espanola. / Alonso Cano.

Description

Portrait of Alonso Cano Almansa (1601-.1667). He was a Spanish painter, sculptor and architect of the Baroque period. From Escuele Espanola, after the original drawing by Velázquez. Diego, (1599-1660).

ca. 1640

Artist

Maura

Historical Description

Alonso Cano (1601- 1667 ) was a Spanish painter, sculptor and architect who is considered the founder of the "Escuela granadina de pintura", Granadine painting. Cano was a son of the Spanish cabinetmaker Miguel Cano and his wife Maria de Almansa. ano came with his family to Seville at a young age, where he became a student of the painters Juan del Castillo, Francisco Pacheco and Francisco de Herrera the Elder. In 1614 he also made the acquaintance of Diego Velázquez. He oriented himself in sculpture especially to Juan Martínez Montañés, a master of estofados sculpture. Here in Seville, he made altars in the churches of S. Paula and S. Alberto, among others, as well as the portraits of John Baptista and John Evangelista in the University Church. In 1630 he took over the great altarpiece in Lebrija begun by his father, which he completed by 1636. He was responsible for the architecture and made the statues, while the paintings were made by Pablo Legote (1598-1671). In 1637 he had to leave Seville because he had seriously wounded the painter Sebastián de Llanos y Valdés (c. 1605-1677) in a duel. He went to Madrid, where Velásquez recommended him to the court. Thus Cano was appointed superintendent of all royal buildings and court painter to King Philip IV.