Cristóbal García Salmerón (c.1603 – c.1666) was a Spanish painter of the

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 ...

period.

Life and works

There is very little biographical data available. Salmerón was born in Cuenca. It is generally assumed that he was a student of

Pedro Orrente Pedro de Orrente (April 1580, Murcia – 19 January 1645, Valencia) was a Spanish painter of the early Baroque period who became one of the first artists in that part of Spain to paint in a Naturalistic style. Biography His father, Jaime de Ho ...

, either in Cuenca or

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

, but no documentary evidence supports it. Most likely it was Toledo, as his work also shows the influence of

Luis Tristán Luis Tristán de Escamilla, also known as Luis de Escamilla or Luis Rodríguez Tristán (c.1585, Toledo, Spain, Toledo - 1624, Toledo), was a Spanish painter in the mannerist style. Life and work He was born into a family of merchants and artisa ...

and Juan Bautista Maíno. His first signed work, "San Julián, obispo de Cuenca", created for Málaga Cathedral in 1673, owes some obvious debt to Orrente as well as Vicente Carducho. In Cuenca Cathedral there is a signed work on the altar, depicting Saint John the Baptist. In 1642, when King

Philip IV Philip IV may refer to: * Philip IV of Macedon (died 297 BC) * Philip IV of France (1268–1314), Avignon Papacy * Philip IV of Burgundy or Philip I of Castile (1478–1506) * Philip IV, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (1542–1602) * Philip IV of Spain ...

passed through Cuenca, he painted a bullfight that had been held for the occasion. That work received great praise from the art historian Antonio Palomino, when he saw it at the Royal Alcázar of Madrid. In 1648, he received a commission to create a series of portraits of apostles and prophets for the nave of Cuenca Cathedral. These later formed the background for engravings of the cathedral by Hans Vredeman de Vries. He is also credited with a series of half-length apostles carrying signs with verses from the

Creed A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets. The ea ...

s, of which many copies were made. Some are now in 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 ...

. At an unknown date, he moved to Madrid, which is attested by the presence of several works in his style; notably at the Convento del Carmen Calzado.

Sources

* Angulo Íñiguez, Diego; Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. (1972). ''Pintura toledana de la primera mitad del siglo XVII''. Madrid, Instituto Diego Velázquez, CSIC. . * Palomino, Antonio (1988). ''El museo pictórico y escala óptica III. El parnaso español pintoresco laureado''. Madrid : Aguilar S.A. de Ediciones. . * Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. (1992). ''Pintura barroca en España 1600-1750''. Madrid : Ediciones Cátedra. .

External links

1603 births 1666 deaths People from Cuenca, Spain 17th-century Spanish painters Spanish male painters Spanish Baroque painters {{Spain-painter-stub