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Casto Plasencia y Maestro (17 July 1846 – 18 May 1890) was a Spanish painter of landscapes, portraits and murals.


Biography

Plasencia was born in Cañizar. His father was a rural doctor, and he was orphaned as a teenager.Biografías de Gentes de Guadalajara
/ref> Under the sponsorship of several local nobles, he travelled to Madrid and entered the
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acad ...
, where he became one of the first students who received fellowships to the new "Academia Española de Bellas Artes de Roma".Brief biography
@ the
Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
website.
His initial success came in 1878 with his "Origin of the Roman Republic", which won First Prize at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes and Third Prize at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. After becoming established in Madrid, he was chosen to do portraits of King
Alfonso XII Alfonso XII (Alfonso Francisco de Asís Fernando Pío Juan María de la Concepción Gregorio Pelayo; 28 November 185725 November 1885), also known as El Pacificador or the Peacemaker, was King of Spain from 29 December 1874 to his death in 188 ...
and Queen María. He also stood out as a painter of religious subjects. As the Assistant Manager on a project at the San Francisco el Grande Basilica, he participated in decorating the main
cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...
and was in charge of the paintings for the chapel of the
Order of Carlos III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III ( es, Real y Distinguida Orden Española de Carlos III, originally es, Real y Muy Distinguida Orden de Carlos III) was establ ...
. He was also involved in decorating the Palacio del Marqués de Linares and was one of the founding members of the
Círculo de Bellas Artes The Círculo de Bellas Artes is a private, non-profit, cultural organization that was founded in 1880. Its building, located in Madrid, Spain, was declared ''Bien de Interés Cultural'' in 1981. The CBA is a major multidisciplinary centre with one ...
. In the summer of 1884, his fellow painter Tomás García Sampedro invited him to visit
Muros del Nalón Muros may refer to: *Muros, A Coruña, a municipality in the province of A Coruña in the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain * Muros, Sardinia, a comune in the province of Sassari in the region Sardini, Italy *Muros (comarca) Muros is a comarc ...
in
Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in nor ...
. He was charmed by the area and continued to visit there every summer with other painters and students who formed what came to be known as the "", a group devoted to
plein-air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...
painting in the surrounding countryside. Plasencia died suddenly in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, aged only forty-three.


References


Further reading

* Juan Dijes Antón, Manuel Sagredo y Martín: ''Biografías de Hijos Ilustres de la Provincia de Guadalajara''. Tipografia y encuadernación provincial, Guadalajara, 1889. * Esteban Casado Alcalde: ''Pintores de la Academia de Roma. La primera promoción''. Barcelona: Lunwerg Editores, 1990, .


External links


ArtNet: More works by Plasencia

Brief biography
@ MCN Biografías {{DEFAULTSORT:Plasencia, Casto 1846 births 1890 deaths 19th-century Spanish painters Spanish male painters Orientalist painters Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando alumni 19th-century Spanish male artists