Francisco Herrera the Younger ("el Mozo"; 1622 – 25 August 1685) was a Spanish painter and architect.

Life

Herera mozo San Antonio de Padua 1660-1670

Born in

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 ...

, he was the second son of

Francisco Herrera the Elder Francisco Herrera (1576–1656) was a distinguished Spanish painter, born in Seville. He was the founder of the Seville school. Biography Francisco Herrera was born in Seville in 1576. Francisco Pacheco was his teacher, but Herrera soon brok ...

("el Viejo"), and began his career under his father's instruction; but the father's violent temper at last became so intolerable that the youth fled to Rome. For six years the younger Herrera devoted himself to the study of architecture, perspective, and the antique, his aim being

fresco painting Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster ...

. He excelled in

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

. He already painted '' bodegones'', fish so cleverly done that the Romans called him ''lo Spagnuolo dei pesci'' ("the Spaniard of the Fish"). In 1656 he returned to Seville, founded the Seville Academy, and in 1660 became its sub-director under

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Bartolomé Esteban Murillo ( , ; late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporar ...

. He is said to have been vain, suspicious, hot-tempered, and jealous; at any rate he resented his subordinate post and went to Madrid about 1661 (Cean Bermúdez). Before leaving his native city he painted two large pictures for the cathedral and a "St. Francis" for the chapel of this saint.

Edmund Walker Head Sir Edmund Walker Head, 8th Baronet, KCB (16 February 1805 – 28 January 1868) was a 19th-century British politician and diplomat. Early life and scholarship Head was born at Wiarton Place, near Maidstone, Kent, the son of the Reverend Sir J ...

declares the latter to be his masterpiece. In Madrid he painted a great ''Triumph of St. Hermengild'' for the church of the

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...

friars, and a group of frescoes in San Felipe el Real which was appreciated by

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV ( es, Felipe, pt, Filipe; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered f ...

, who commissioned him the painting of the dome of the chapel of Our Lady of Atocha, and thereafter made him painter to the king and superintendent of royal buildings. Besides his work in still life he painted many portraits, and while these lacked the vigour which characterized his father's work, they exhibit a greater knowledge and use of ''

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

''.

Charles II of Spain Charles II of Spain (''Spanish: Carlos II,'' 6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700), known as the Bewitched (''Spanish: El Hechizado''), was the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire. Best remembered for his physical disabilities and the War o ...

kept him at his Court and made him master of the royal works. For this king Herrera renovated the

Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar :''See Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar (Buenos Aires) for the church in Buenos Aires'' The Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar ( es, Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar) is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Zaragoza ...

, in

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 ...

. Herrera died at Madrid in 1685.

References

Scholarly articles
in English about Francisco Herrera, El Mozo both in web an
PDF
@ th
Spanish Old Masters Gallery
;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera, Francisco 1622 births 1685 deaths People from Seville 17th-century Spanish painters 17th-century Spanish architects Spanish male painters Spanish architects Catholic painters