Alonso Miguel de Tovar, sometimes (less correctly) called Tobar (1678–1752) was a Spanish

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, appointed court painter by

Philip V Philip V may refer to: * Philip V of Macedon (221–179 BC) * Philip V of France (1293–1322) * Philip II of Spain Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September ...

in 1723.

Early career

Alonso Miguel de Tovar was born in Higuera de la Sierra, near

Aracena Aracena () is a town and municipality located in the province of Huelva, south-western Spain. , the city has a population of 7,814 inhabitants. The town derived its name from the Sierra de Aracena, which is part of the Sierra Morena system. Ar ...

. in 1678, to a secondary and empoverished branch of the illustrious Tovar family, of the Lords of Tovar, later Marquesses of Berlanga. He trained in Seville under Juan Antonio Ossorio and Juan Antonio Fajardo, having executed numerous religious paintings, including ''Our Lady of Consolation with Saints Francis, James and a Clerical Donor'' (1720), in the Seville Cathedral, and ''St Francis Receiving the Stigmata'' (c. 1720), in the Royal Academy of San Fernando, Madrid. He was named ''pintor de cámara'' to King Felipe V in April 1729, taking the place of

Teodoro Ardemans Teodoro de Ardemans or Ardmans (ca. 1661–1726) was a Spanish architect and painter. Ardemans was born in Madrid to a German father. He was a disciple of the painter Claudio Coello, although he mainly practiced architecture; the municipal ...

. In both of these the influence of Murillo is discernible: the colouring is vivid and the drawing precise, if slightly rigid, and both works show what has been called a ''gentle and uncomplicated piety'', differing to some extent from the tradition of Spanish religious painting. He painted a canvas of ''Nuestra Señora del Consuelo'' in 1720 for a church in Seville. He returned to Madrid in 1734, where he died.

Career as court painter

Tovar was appointed court painter in 1729, when the Spanish court moved to Seville, taking the place of Teodoro Ardemans. There he collaborated with Jean Ranc, probably painting replicas of the latter's portraits. His own portraits include ''Portrait of a Young Girl'' (1732), now in

Meiningen Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 25,000 (2021).

, at Schloss Elisabethenburg. In 1733 he travelled with the court when it returned to Madrid, and he may have worked as an assistant to Louis-Michel van Loo. Tovar also probably painted the theme of the ''Holy Shepherd'', popular with Sevillian artists of his time. Of the paintings of the subject attributed to him, however, only the one in the church at Cortelazor, near Aracena, signed in 1748, is considered authentic.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Tovar, Alonso Miguel 1678 births 1758 deaths 17th-century Spanish painters Spanish male painters 18th-century Spanish painters 18th-century Spanish male artists Spanish Baroque painters Spanish bodegón painters Court painters