Sebastián Muñoz (c.1654,
Casarrubios del Monte
Casarrubios del Monte is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2006 census (INE
INE, Ine or ine may refer to:
Institutions
* Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research ce ...
- 20 March 1690,
Madrid) was a Spanish
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 ...
painter.
Life and work
In 1670, he became an apprentice in the workshop of . By January 1680, he was in Madrid, assisting
Claudio Coello
Claudio Coello (2 March 1642 – 20 April 1693) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Coello is considered the last great Spanish painter of the 17th century.
The son of Faustino Coello, a famous Portuguese sculptor, he was a court painter for Char ...
with decorations to celebrate the arrival of
Marie Louise d'Orléans, the new wife of King
Charles II. He used the money that he earned to go to Italy.
[ Antonio Palomino, ''El museo pictórico y escala óptica III. El parnaso español pintoresco laureado''. Madrid : Aguilar S.A. de Ediciones. .] Later that year, he joined with expatriate Spanish painters in petitioning the King to establish a Spanish painting academy in Rome. While there, he apparently studied with
Carlo Maratta. On his return to Spain, he stopped in
Zaragoza, where he once again served as an assistant to Coello, painting
fresco
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 plaste ...
es in the .
Back in Madrid, in 1686, he worked at the
Royal Alcázar, where he painted the ceiling of the Queen's room with a scene from
Orlando Furioso
''Orlando furioso'' (; ''The Frenzy of Orlando'', more loosely ''Raging Roland'') is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was no ...
. Only a preparatory sketch has survived.
[Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E., ''El dibujo español de los siglos de oro'', Madrid, Sala de exposiciones del palacio de bibliotecas y museos, 1980] Elsewhere in the palace, he created a scene from the mythological story of
Psyche and
Cupid
In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...
, which earned him an appointment as
court painter. It has since been lost. In 1689, he painted the Queen's funeral for the
Convento del Carmen Calzado. It is said that the monks didn't recognize the Queen as portrayed, so Muñoz had to place her portrait in a medallion, supported by angels.
At the
Buen Retiro Palace, he worked on decorations for the private rooms of the new Queen,
Maria Anna of Neuburg, at the same time he began restoring the frescoes in the
cupola at the
Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Atocha. While occupied with the latter project, he slipped and fell to his death from the scaffolding. A monumental canvas depicting the "
Martyrdom of Saint Andrew The Martyrdom or Crucifixion of Saint Andrew refers to the death of Andrew the Apostle.
It may also refer to:
* ''The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew'' (Caravaggio)
* ''Crucifixion of Saint Andrew'' (Damaskinos)
* ''The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew'' (M ...
" was left unfinished at the parish church in his hometown. It was later completed by , who made an effort to preserve Muñoz' style throughout.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Biography@ 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 ...
Digitalized works@ the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica of the
Biblioteca Nacional de España
{{DEFAULTSORT:Munoz, Sebastian
1650s births
1690 deaths
Spanish painters
Fresco painters
Deaths from falls
People from the Province of Toledo