- Born:
- March 25, 1614, AvilƩs, Asturias, Spain
- Died:
- Oct. 3, 1685, Madrid (aged 71)
- Movement / Style:
- Baroque art and architecture
Juan CarreƱo de Miranda
Juan CarreƱo de Miranda (born March 25, 1614, AvilĆ©s, Asturias, Spainādied Oct. 3, 1685, Madrid) was a painter, considered the most important Spanish court painter of the Baroque period after Diego VelĆ”zquez. Influenced and overshadowed both by VelĆ”zquez and Sir Anthony Van Dyck, he was nonetheless a highly original and sensitive artist in his own right.
CarreƱo studied painting under Pedro de las Cavas and BartolomƩ RomƔn. He assisted VelƔzquez in the decoration of the AlcƔzar in Madrid and the other royal palaces and was appointed painter to King Charles II in 1669 and court painter in 1671.
Although he is known primarily as a portraitist, he also painted many religious works in oil and fresco that reveal a unique Baroque sensibility. Such works as his masterpiece, Founding of the Trinitarian Order (1666), are marked by mastery of execution, subtle interplay of light and shadow, and inventiveness of scene. Following the tradition of VelĆ”zquezā court portraits, he painted many pictures of the queen mother, Mariana of Austria, and traced in oil the decline of Charles II from a handsome child to a decrepit old man. Even the most repellent portraits of Charles possess the aristocratic elegance that characterize CarreƱoās paintings.
