Alonso Cano
Alonso Cano Almansa (Granada, February 19, 1601 - Granada, September 3, 1667) was a Spanish painter, sculptor and architect of the Baroque period. He is considered the founder of the Granada school of painting.
He exerted a great artistic influence in Andalusia and Madrid. He had as a disciple the painter, sculptor and architect Sebastián Herrera Barnuevo. The painters Juan de Sevilla, Pedro Atanasio Bocanegra and Juan Niño de Guevara and the sculptors Pedro de Mena and José de Mora can be considered his disciples.
Biography
In Grenada
His parents were originally from La Mancha. His father, Miguel Cano, was from Almodóvar del Campo, and his mother, María de Almansa, was from Villarrobledo. In 1587 the couple settled in Granada, where they had eight children. Alonso was the seventh and was baptized on March 19, 1601 in the Church of San Ildefonso. Two of the eight children must have died in Granada, since Miguel Cano only refers to six in his will in 1642.
The father was a master assembler and worked with altarpieces, choir stalls and tabernacles. In his work in Granada, he collaborated with artists such as Pablo de Rojas, Bernabé de Gaviria, Diego de Navas, Diego de Aranda, Juan García Corrales and Bautista de Alvarado.
According to the historian Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, the painter Juan del Castillo passed through Granada and noticed the great gifts of Alonso Cano. He then advised his father to take him to Seville, to train him in the arts.
In Seville
In 1614 Miguel Cano moved with his family to Calle Carreteros (today Fabié) in the Triana neighborhood, Seville. Shortly after he moved to the nearby Calle Espíritu Santo (today Betis), in the same neighborhood. Miguel He prospered professionally and began to carry out commissions of some importance in the provinces of Seville, Huelva and Cádiz.
In the information for the entry of Diego Velázquez into the Order of Santiago, Cano testified in Madrid, on December 23, 1658, that he had known him since 1614. In his statement he said that he had also known his parents and paternal grandfather in Seville, and that they were of pure blood and considered hijosdalgo. A close friendship was forged between the two artists.
It is unknown what Alonso Cano did between 1614 and 1616, but it can be assumed that he learned in his father's workshop to draw patterns and templates for stalls, tabernacles and altarpieces, decorated with motifs of classical origin. The study of this took place with Italian or Flemish plates.
On August 17, 1616, Miguel Cano contracted with Francisco Pacheco to educate Alonso in painting. According to this agreement, the apprentice would work five years in the workshop and the master would take care of his training, his accommodation and his maintenance. The historian Lázaro Díaz del Valle says that Alonso Cano only spent eight months in Pacheco's workshop and the Historian Antonio Palomino says that it later went to the workshops of Juan del Castillo and Francisco de Herrera el Viejo.
In 1624, his work San Francisco de Borja is known, although he must have made more paintings. In 1624, perhaps because he still lacked his letter as a master painter, he refused to paint canvases for the cloister of the Convent of La Merced in Seville, which was later entrusted to Francisco de Zurbarán.
On January 26, 1625, he married María de Figueroa, widow of Pedro de Acosta, in the Church of San Vicente.
On April 12, 1626, it is recorded that Alonso had already passed his exam for the trade and art of imagery painter. Shortly after, that same year, he moved to the collation of San Miguel, where he had his house and workshop. On January 12, 1627, he moved to some rented houses in the San Lorenzo neighborhood, on Naranjuelo street (today Cardenal Spínola).
In 1627 his wife died. It is believed that she either gave him no offspring, or, according to H. Whethey, she gave him only one son, named Hernando.
His father, Miguel Cano, collaborated with his son on numerous projects.
It has been speculated, due to his style, that in the 1620s he trained in sculpture at the hands of Juan Martínez Montañés. According to Ceán Bermúdez, Alonso Cano's style must have learned from the classical sculptures of the then Palace of the Dukes of Alcalá (currently known as the Casa de Pilatos). The fact is that in 1629 he also began to appear in notarial contracts as a master sculptor and architect.
For his part, in these years Zurbarán astonished the city with his works, such as those of the chapel of San Pedro in the cathedral and those of the cloister of La Merced, and in 1630 the City Council invited him to leave Fill and settle in Seville. Alonso Cano, as a representative of the union, wanted to examine Zurbarán as a painter, but he refused, counting on the support of the council and his assistant. Zurbarán settled in Seville and the Council commissioned him a painting of the Immaculate Conception.
When Alonso received orders from towns on the banks of the Guadalquivir, he manufactured them in Seville and then shipped them to their destination.
During his years in Seville he collaborated with the artists Felipe and Gaspar de Ribas, Luis Ortiz de Vargas, Juan del Castillo, Pablo Legot, the Uceda family, Martín de Andújar Cantos, Francisco Varela and others.
In May 1631 Alonso returned to the collation of San Vicente. On July 31, 1631, he married María Magdalena de Uceda Pinto de León, daughter of the painter Juan Bautista de Uceda, in the Church of Santa Marina.
Shortly after, the couple moved to the San Lorenzo neighborhood, perhaps to the same houses on Naranjuelo street. On June 18, 1633, they rented some houses on Calle de las Armas (today Alfonso XII). Finally, at the end of that year, they moved to the Magdalena collation.
Alonso's mother died shortly after and his father married Luisa de Osorio for the second time. The marriage would later move to the collation of San Gil.
In November 1631 the painter Juan de Uceda Castroverde, Alonso's uncle-in-law, made a will and gave him part of the profits from a silver mine in Cala. He also bequeathed many prints, drawings and models to Juan Bautista, which could be handled by Alonso Cano, as well as books on anatomy and a book on architecture.
In 1635 Martínez Montañez, who had to go temporarily to Madrid, commissioned him to replace him in the representation of the guild of sculptors and architects.
In August 1636 he was in jail for some debts and it was his friend Juan del Castillo who paid the bail. He fell ill in jail and was cared for by Juan del Castillo, who temporarily lodged him in his house. Finally, Alonso paid the debts by selling the black slave that he received as a dowry from his second wife to Pablo Legot. Despite this, he maintained his prestige and in 1637 represented the guild of architects and sculptors in a lawsuit against the white carpenters on the heading of the alcabalas.
Antonio Palomino narrates that Alonso Cano, knowing how to handle weapons, seriously wounded the painter Sebastián de Llanos y Valdés in a duel.
In Madrid
In 1637 he began preparing his trip to Madrid, where he had been called to work for Philip IV's favorite, the powerful Count-Duke of Olivares. Possibly, he was called at a suggestion by Velázquez.
In the winter of 1638 he settled in Madrid. In 1642 he sent his father a general power of attorney to transfer all his affairs, indicating his desire to remain at court.At this stage he was professor of drawing to Prince Baltasar Carlos.
Due to its proximity to the court, Cano was able to see the royal collections, rich in Venetian painting from the XVI century and in recent works by his colleague Velázquez. All of this helps to explain his evolution from Caravaggio-derived tenebrism to a more colorful style and graceful figures sometimes reminiscent of Van Dyck.
In 1643 the Count-Duke of Olivares, his protector, ceased to be trusted by the King, but Alonso continued to work thanks to his talent.
While in the town and court, he was the teacher of Sebastián de Herrera Barnuevo.
In 1644 his wife was found stabbed to death with 15 stab wounds and with locks of her murderer's hair in her hands. The court reporter, Pellicer y Tovar, indicated four days later that an Italian painter was accused of the crime, whom Cano allowed to copy his figures and who lived in the artist's house. The aforementioned Italian painter disappeared and the authorities discovered disagreements between the spouses, for which reason they began to suspect Alonso himself. He was arrested and tortured, but not found guilty.
After this, he moved to the province of Valencia, where he lived for a time in the Cartuja de Porta Coeli. Alonso took books, prints and instruments to this place, which seems to be an indication that he intended to stay there permanently. However, in 1645 he decided to return to Madrid.
Later, he asked the king for a prebend in the ecclesiastical chapter of the cathedral of Granada, which was granted.
Return to Granada
He returned to Granada in 1652. He lived in the Albaicín neighborhood. His work managed to greatly influence Granada and all of Eastern Andalusia in the second half of the XVII century.
He died in extreme poverty on September 3, 1667. One of his disciples, Atanasio Bocanegra, took a picture of him in his last moments. This painting is kept in the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville.
Style
Mannerism was very influential in Cano's initial training, to which was added the baroque style that was beginning to be appreciated in the Sevillian environment.
During a good part of his time in Seville, he practiced tenebrism in his paintings. In 1640 he was in charge of restoring some paintings after the fire at the Buen Retiro palace, which led him to assimilate Italian and Flemish pictorial techniques. He was particularly influenced by the Venetian painters of the 16th century century and by the elegant forms and transparent tones of Van Dyck.
Between 1639 and 1640, he was commissioned to paint 16 imaginary portraits of medieval kings of Spain for the Golden Room of the Alcázar in Madrid. In the fire of 1734, all but A King of Spain and Two Kings of Spain were lost. Both are in the Museo del Prado and they show the painter's interest in color and transparency.
Selection of works
After the French invasion of Seville, Marshal Soult took a collection of paintings to France, including 25 works by Alonso Cano.
Painting
- 1620-1625. St. John Evangelist. Ancient Castell collection. Barcelona.
- 1624. San Francisco de Borja. Museum of Fine Arts of Seville.
- 1625? Portrait of an ecclesiastical. American Hispanic Society. New York.
- 1628. Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzi. Museum of Fine Arts of Seville.
- 1630. Tabernacle with painting of the Child Jesus. Church of Our Lady of the O. Rota.
- 1630-1634. Two pictures of Tobias. Bonilla Collection. Jaén.
- 1631. Jesus tied to the column. Puerta del Sagrario del retablo mayor de la Iglesia de Santa María la Blanca. The Bell.
- 1631-1637. Santa Inés. Destroyed in a fire in Berlin in 1945.
- 1634-1635. Yellow Street. Worcester Art Museum.
- 1635-1637. Vision of San Juan. Wallace Collection. London.
- 1635-1637. Vision of God. Ringling Museum. Sarasota. Finished by Juan del Castillo.
- 1635-1637. Virgin of Bethlehem. Seville Cathedral.
- 1636. Agnes of Purgatory. Museum of Fine Arts of Seville.
- 1636-1637. Virgin of Bethlehem. Jaen Museum. Copy of the Virgin of Bethlehem of the Cathedral of Seville.
- 1636-1637. Virgin of Bethlehem. Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg. Copy.
- 1636-1637. Christ of Humility. Church of San Ginés. Madrid.
- 1646. Christ Crucified. Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Madrid.
- 1635-1637. Christ and the Samaritan. Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Madrid.
- 1638-1651. Juno. Museo del Prado. Madrid.
- 1645. The history of the circumcision of Jesus Christ, Saint Anne with the Virgin in arms, Saint Elizabeth with St.John the Baptist, Jesus Christ for the door of the tabernacle and two small pieces, one with St. Thomas Aquinas and one with St. All this for the altarpiece of the Holy Name of Jesus. Getafe Cathedral.
- 1648. Immaculate Conception. Diocesan Museum of Sacro Art of Álava.
- 1657-1660. Flagellation of Jesus. Convent of the Blessed Christ of the Victory of Serradilla.
- 1652 to 1664. Seven canvases with the life of the Virgin Mary. Head of the Cathedral of Granada.
- Saint Catherine. Private collection of Paris. There is a copy made by Eugéne Delacroix at the Museum of Fine Arts of Béziers.
Sculptures
- 1620. Immaculate. Church of the Conception. Seville.
- 1628-1629. St. Teresa of Avila. Church of the Good Success. Seville.
- 1631-1632. Virgin of Olive. Lebrija.
- 1633-1634. Immaculate. Church of San Julián. Seville.
- 1634. St. John the Baptist. Old collection Güell. Barcelona.
- 1655. Immaculate Facistol. Sacristy of the Cathedral of Granada.
Altarpieces and stalls
- 1629-1631. Senior altarpiece of the Church of Santa Maria de la Oliva. Lebrija.
- 1629-1637. Senior altarpiece of the Church of Santa Maria la Blanca. The Bell.
- 1631-1637. Choir sillery. Church of Saint Catherine. Seville.
- 1635-1637. Retablo of Saint John Evangelista. Church of the Convent of Santa Paula. Seville.