Francisco Pacheco del Río (bap. 3 November 1564 – 27 November 1644) was a Spanish painter, best known as the teacher and father-in-law of Diego Velázquez and
Alonzo Cano
Alonso Cano Almansa or Alonzo Cano (19 March 16013 September 1667) was a Spanish painter, architect, and sculptor born in Granada.''Art of Painting'', that is an important source for the study of 17th-century practice in Spain. He is described by some as the "
Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
of Seville": vocal and didactic about his theories of painting and thoughts about painters, conventional and uninspired in his executions.The Paintings of Francisco de Herrera, The Elder, by John S. Thacher. The Art Bulletin (1937); page 328.
Early life
He was born at
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Sanlúcar de Barrameda (), or simply Sanlúcar, is a city in the northwest of Cádiz province, part of the autonomous community of Andalucía in southern Spain. Sanlúcar is located on the left bank at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River opposit ...
, son of Juan Pérez and wife Leonor del Río, and moved to
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
at a young age. He was a student of Luis Fernandez, and did much of his learning by copying works of the Italian masters. He visited
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 ...
and Toledo in 1611, studying the work of El Greco, then returned to Seville and opened an art school. He married a daughter of de Miranda and had one daughter, Juana Pacheco (1 June 1602 – 10 August 1660)
Career
Pacheco's school emphasized the academically correct representation of religious subjects, not least because he was the official censor of Seville's
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
. His own work reflects those constraints; paintings such as the ''Last Judgment'' (convent of Santa Isabel) and ''Martyrs of Granada'' are monumental in scale but unimaginative in treatment.
Although Velázquez was a student in Pacheco's school for six years, and married Pacheco's daughter Juana on 23 April 1618, there is no trace of Pacheco's influence in the work of Velázquez besides in standards of decorum, such as depictions of the
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.
It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...
.
In addition to material on iconography, materials and technique, Pacheco's ''Arte de la pintura'' (1649) includes valuable biographical information on Spanish painters of the time.
Gallery
File:Francisco Pacheco-Mercedarians Ransoming Christian captives.jpg, ''Mercedarians Ransoming Christian Captives'' (1600)
File:Francisco Pacheco-Last Communion of Raymond Nonnatus.jpg, ''Last Communion of St. Raymond Nonnatus'' (1611)
File:Le Christ servi par les anges dans le désert, Francisco Pacheco, Musée Goya.jpg, ''Christ served by angels in the desert'' (1616)
File:FranciscoPacheco.jpg, ''Mystic Marriage of Saint Agnes'' (1628)
File:El sueño de San José, de Francisco Pacheco (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando).jpg, ''Dream of Saint Joseph (''circa 1617 – 1620)
File:Santa Catalina, Francisco Pacheco.jpg, Santa Catalina (Saint Katherine)
File:Santa Inés, Francisco Pacheco.jpg, Santa Inés (Saint Agnes)
File:San Juan Evangelista, por Francisco Pacheco.jpg, San Juan Evangelista (Saint John the Evangelist)
File:San Jerónimo, de Francisco Pacheco (Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla).jpg, San Jerónimo (Saint Geronimo)
File:San Benito Abad, de Francisco Pacheco (Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla).jpg, San Benito Abad (Saint Benedict Abbot)
File:San Luis, rey de Francia, de Francisco Pacheco (Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla).jpg, San Luis, rey de Francia (Saint Louis, King of France)
References
*Priscilla E. Muller, ''Francisco Pacheco: His development as a painter'' (Hispanic Society of America)