Francisco Bayeu y Subías (9 March 1734,

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

– 4 August 1795,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

) was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

painter in the Neoclassic style, whose main subjects were religious and historical themes. He is best known for his frescoes. His brothers Ramón and Manuel were also well-known painters.

Biography

His father made surgical instruments and barbers' tools. He received a broad childhood education, possibly from the

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. His initial art studies were with a local master,

José Luzán José Luzán (1710 – 1785), also José Luzán y Martínez, was a Spanish Baroque painter. Son of the painter and gilder of retablos Juan Luzán, Luzán married Teresa, daughter of John Zabalo, who was also a painter and designer of altarp ...

(who had studied with Francesco Solimena in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

), Antonio González Velázquez, for whom he worked as an assistant, and . In 1758, when Francisco received a scholarship to study in Madrid, at 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 acade ...

, his siblings followed; having been orphaned. González, who was then living in Madrid, helped support the family. While there, he created some religious works; notably at the Charterhouse of Aula Dei. He was expelled in 1759, after conflicts with his instructors, so he returned to Zaragoza with Ramón, who became his first student. Shortly after his return, he married Sebastiana Merklein, his former teacher's daughter. The marriage was intended as an introduction to society, and commissions soon followed. In 1763, he was recalled to Madrid by

Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (22 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German painter, active in Dresden, Rome, and Madrid, who while painting in the Rococo period of the mid-18th century became one of the precursors to Neoclassical painting, which replace ...

, to help decorate the Royal Palace. That same year, was given a position at the

Royal Tapestry Factory The Royal Tapestry Factory (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Real Fábrica de Tapices de Santa Bárbara'') is a manufacturing plant located in Madrid, Spain, which was founded in 1720. History The factory was founded by Philip V of Spain, Philip V ...

by King

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. There, together with Ramón, he created designs and "cartones" (cartoons). He also re-enrolled at the Academia. In 1766, he received a scholarship to study in Italy. In addition to his tapestry work, he executed numerous decorative paintings at various palaces and churches. In later years, one of his colleagues was

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

, who had married his sister,

Josefa Bayeu Josefa Bayeu y Subías (1747 – 1812) was the sister of artist Francisco Bayeu, and wife of artist Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish Romanticism, romantic painter and Printmak ...

. He was named a professor and Lieutenant-Director of the Academia in 1765, and was appointed a

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

in 1767. After several applications, he became Director of Painting at the Academia in 1788. The death of his brother Ramón, to whom he had been very close, caused his already poor health to deteriorate even further. He was finally named Director of the Academia in 1795, shortly before his death from what contemporaries describe as an "agonizing disease"; possibly the same lead poisoning that had afflicted Ramón.

Sources

* Morales y Marín, J.L., ''Francisco Bayeu, vida y obra,'' Zaragoza, Moncayo, 1995. * '' El arte de los Bayeu,'' Expo 92 (Sevilla). Pabellón de Aragón, 1991. * ''Los Bayeu,'' Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja (Ibercaja, Obra Social y Cultural), 1979. * Sambricio, V. De, ''Francisco Bayeu,'' Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1956.
Francisco Bayeu
in the Enciclopedia en Línea @ the Museo del Prado.

External links

Biography
@ the ''

Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

''
Scholarly articles
about Francisco Bayeu both in web an
PDF
@ th
Spanish Old Masters Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayeu, Francisco 1734 births 1795 deaths People from Zaragoza 18th-century Spanish painters 18th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters Court painters Spanish neoclassical painters