Alonso Martínez de Espinar (5 May 158814 May 1682) was a Spanish

courtier A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the officia ...

and one of three important writers on venery of the

Spanish Baroque Spanish Baroque is a strand of Baroque architecture that evolved in Spain, its List of provinces of Spain, provinces, and former Spanish Empire, colonies. History The development of the style passed through three phases. Between 1680 and 1720, ...

. He was a ''ballestero'' ("crossbowman") and

arquebusier An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier. The term ''arquebus'' was applied to many different forms of firearms ...

to several

kings of Spain This is a list of monarchs of Spain, a dominion started with the dynastic union of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. The regnal numbers follow those of the rulers of Asturias, León, and Castile. ...

Life

Martínez de Espinar was the son of Cristóbal Martínez de Espinar, of Baza in

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

, and Juana Hernández Sacristán, who was from

Brunete Brunete () is a town located on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain, with a population of 10,730 people. History There was no military garrison in Brunete and there was no rebel attempt to seize the city during the coup of July 1936. Brunete remai ...

in the

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of Madrid. He was baptised in the church of San Martín in Madrid. He had a sister, Jerónima Martínez de Espinar, who married Alonso Mateos, who was ''ballestero'' to the King of Spain and the brother of Juan Mateos, author of another important book on venery.

Pictorial representations

Martínez de Espinar appears in the original version of '' Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School'' painted by

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptised 6 June 15996 August 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the Noble court, court of King Philip IV of Spain, Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He i ...

at the

Palacio del Buen Retiro Buen Retiro Palace (Spanish: ''Palacio del Buen Retiro'') in Madrid was a large palace complex designed by the architect (c. 1590–1660) and built on the orders of Philip IV of Spain as a secondary residence and place of recreation (hence its ...

in 1636. He is shown in the right middle ground of the picture, handing a

lance The English term lance is derived, via Middle English '' launce'' and Old French '' lance'', from the Latin '' lancea'', a generic term meaning a wikt:lancea#Noun">lancea'', a generic term meaning a spear">wikt:lancea#Noun">lancea'', a generi ...

Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, 1st Duke of Sanlúcar, 3rd Count of Olivares, , known as the Count-Duke of Olivares (taken by joining both Count of Olivares, his countship and Duke of Sanlúcar la Mayor, subsequent dukedom) (6 January 1587 – 2 ...

riding-master {{short description, Person whose job it is to teach methods of horse riding A riding instructor is a person whose job it is to teach methods of horse riding (and also horse care) to beginners and improve the intermediate and advanced rider's style ...

to Prince Baltasar Carlos, who will then hand it to his charge, who is on horseback in the foreground; behind Martínez de Espinar is Juan Mateos, while on a balcony of the palace stand King Philip IV and Queen Isabel. Three portraits are known or believed to be of Martínez de Espinar: the

frontispiece Frontispiece may refer to: * Frontispiece (books), a decorative illustration facing a book's title page * Frontispiece (architecture) In architecture, the term frontispiece is used to describe the Façade, principal face of the building, usually ...

of his book ''Arte de ballestería y montería'', an

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

by , also known as Johannes van Noordt III; an anonymous painting of the school of Velázquez in the

Museo del Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...

in Madrid, thought to be of him; and another anonymous portrait in the

Museo del Greco The El Greco Museum () is a single-artist museum in Toledo, Spain, Toledo, Spain, devoted to the work and life of El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1541–1614), who spent much of his life in Toledo, having been born in Fodele, Crete. It is one ...

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Published work

The ''Arte de ballestería y montería'' is one of the three principal works on venery of the

period. It was published in Madrid in 1644, with a

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literature, literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a ''foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface o ...

Francisco de Quevedo Villegas Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas, Knight of the Order of Santiago (; 14 September 1580 – 8 September 1645) was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, ...

. It is dedicated to

Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias Balthasar Charles (Spanish: ''Baltasar Carlos de Austria''; 17 October 1629 – 9 October 1646), Prince of Asturias, Prince of Girona, Duke of Montblanc, Count of Cervera, and Lord of Balaguer, Prince of Viana was heir apparent to all the ...

, and contains portrait engravings of him and of Martínez de Espinar by Juan de Noort; the other engravings, of hunting scenes, are by an unknown hand. The book is in three parts, and – despite the title, which means roughly "the art of crossbowmanship and hunting" – deals with hunting both with the

crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an Elasticity (physics), elastic launching device consisting of a Bow and arrow, bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar f ...

and with the

arquebus An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier. The term ''arquebus'' was applied to many different forms of firearms ...

; it also covers hunting with lures and traps. A second edition was published in 1739 in

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, which at that time was under Spanish rule; another was published by Antonio Marín in Madrid in 1761.

Gallery

File:Portret van Alonso Martinez de Espinar, RP-P-1938-590.jpg,

Engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

by Juan van Noort from the ''Arte de ballesteria y monteria'', 1644 File:Supuesto alonso martínez de espinar-prado.jpg, Anonymous portrait, school of Velásquez,

, Madrid

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martínez de Espinar, Alonso 1588 births 1682 deaths 17th-century Spanish writers