JUAN CARRENO DE MIRANDA
Spanish painter, b. at Avilés in Asturia, 1614; d. at
Madrid, 1685. He was a pupil of Pedro de Las Cuevas and Bartolomé Roman, but at the age of twenty
knew more than his masters could teach him, and left them to set up a studio for himself.
Velazquez is said to have interested himself to gain permission for the young
artist to study the frescoes of the royal palaces; Carreño then obtained a commission to decorate the mirrors in the palace of Alcázar, and his talents so recommended him to the Court that in 1660 he was appointed by the king as court
painter (
pintor de cámara), a position he retained under the next king, Charles II. He was a man of particularly
happy,
peaceable disposition, full of generosity, and an immense favourite
with his pupils and friends. His work is tender, suave, and of pure,
fresh colouring, and in his particular method he is only surpassed by
Murillo. Unfortunately, he was too much given to imitating the work of
Velazquez, and, although his portraits are powerful and truthful likenesses, their resemblance in general pose to those of the master force them to challenge the incomparable works of
Velazquez, to the obvious detriment of Carreño. His strongest portrait is that of Prince Pedro Ivanovitz Potemkin, Ambassador from the Emperor of
Russia to the Court of
Spain, a full length figure in red, and he
painted three portraits of Charles II, life-like representations of the child-king. He executed several etchings. His best
paintings are to be seen at
Madrid, St. Petersburg,
Pamplona, Valenciennes, and
Vienna. Palomino gives a long account of his pictures in
Alcalá,
Segovia, and Pamplona, but very little about the artist himself. He was responsible, with Francisco Ricci, for the decoration of the celebrated
cupola of
San Antonio de los Portugueses, and the same two artists collaborated in
painting the "Magdalen in the Desert" for the
Convent of Las Recogidas.
EUGENIA MARTINEZ VALLEJO EN 1680
STATUE DU PEINTRE À AVILÉS
MIRANDA POTYEMKIN AMBASSADEUR DE RUSSIE
