Alonso Cano

Alonso Cano, (Portraits of Illustrious Spanish), 1791

Alonso Cano Almansa (19 March 1601 – 3 September 1667) was a Spanish painter, architect, and sculptor born in Granada.

Biography

He learned architecture from his father, Miguel Cano; painting in the academy of Juan del Castillo, and from Francisco Pacheco the teacher of Velázquez; and sculpture from Juan Martínez Montañés. As a sculptor, his most famous works are the Madonna and Child in the church of Lebrija (also called Nebrija), and the colossal figures of San Pedro and San Pablo.

He was made first royal architect, painter to Philip IV, and instructor to the prince, Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias. The King gave him the church preferment of a canon of the Granada Cathedral (1652), in order to take up a position as chief architect of the cathedral. Towards the end of his life, he designed the cathedral façade, which was erected to his design after his death.

He was notorious for his ungovernable temper; and it is said that once he risked his life by committing the then capital offence of dashing to pieces the statue of a saint, when in a rage with the purchaser who begrudged the price he demanded. According to another story, he found his house robbed after coming home one evening, his wife murdered, and his Italian servant fled. Notwithstanding the presumption against the fugitive, the magistrates condemned Cano, because he was of a jealous temper. Upon this he fled to Valencia, but afterwards returned to Madrid, where he was put to the torture, which he endured without incriminating himself, and the king received him into favour.

After the death of his wife he took Holy Orders as a protection from further prosecution, but still continued his professional pursuits. He died in 1667. In his last moments, when the priest held to him a crucifix, he told him to take it away because it was badly carved. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the dying Cano refused the Sacrament from a priest who gave it to conversos.

Works

• San Vicente Ferrer (praying)
• Virgin of the Olive Tree (1629)
• Inmaculada del Facistol (1655–1656) in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Granada.
• Virgen of Bethlehem
• Bust of Saint Paul
• Head of San Juan de Dios
• Annunciation
• Christ Bound to the Column in the church of the Convento del Stmo. Cristo de la Victoria de Serradilla (Cáceres).
• Entrance of the Cathedral of Granada
• Saint John the Baptist as a Youth 1634, in the National Sculpture Museum (Valladolid).
• St. Anthony Preaching to the Fishes (ca. 1630) [The Detroit Institute of Arts]
• Christ and the Samaritan Woman(ca. 1650-1652) Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando Madrid.
• The Death of Saint Francis. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid.
• The Christ Crucified (c.1646) Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

Works by Cano in the Prado Museum in Madrid include:

• The Crucifixion
• Saint Anthony of Padua
• The Crucified Christ appears to Saint Teresa
• A king of Spain
• Two kings of Spain
• The Miracle of the Well
• Saint Bernard and the Virgin
• The Virgin and Child
• The Dead Christ supported by an Angel

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Alonso Cano — (Or ALEXIS)

A Spanish painter, architect, and sculptor, b. at Granada, 19 March, 1601; d. there 3 or 5 October, 1667. He received his first lessons in art from his father, Miguel Cano, an architect. Later he studied sculpture under Juan Montanes, and painting under Pacheco and Juan del Castillo. In 1625, when Herrera, the sculptor, was his teacher, he attained great fame by producing three coloured statues, now in the church at Lebrija: "The Virgin and Child", "St. Peter", and "St. Paul". They are all superb pieces of statuary, but the first is a masterpiece, conceived and executed in a noble, classical, simple style that rightly earned for Cano the title of the "Michelangelo of Spain". Besides his single figures in marble, he chiselled many beautiful retables, or monumental altar-pieces.

Cano went to Madrid in 1637, and through the influence of the Duke of Olivarez and of Velasques, but chiefly because of his own merit, was made Master of the Royal Works, Painter to the King, and first in rank among the instructors of Don Balthasar Carlos. In Madrid he contributed plans for several palaces, city gates, and a triumphal arch for the entrance of Maria Anna of Austria, wife of Philip IV. In 1650 he became architect of the cathedral of Toledo. Cano was suspected of having murdered his wife, and was unjustly condemned and ordered to leave Madrid. He took refuge in Valencia, attained marked success there, painted a "Nativity", and a "St. John" for the city's great church, and entered the Carthusian convent, so as to be able to devote himself wholly to painting, which henceforth occupied him to the exclusion of sculpture. Tardy justice was done him when he returned to Madrid. He was restored to royal favour, but Cano felt that his only surety was in the Church; therefore he took orders and became a resident of Granada. In 1652 Philip IV appointed him a canon in the cathedral of Granada. To the churches of Granada and Malaga he presented many pictures and statues. A councillor of the former city, having ordered a statue of St. Anthony of Padua from Cano, was charged one hundred doubloons, whereat he demurred, saying that the artist was demanding four pistoles per day for twenty-five days' work, which was more than he, Cano's superior, could earn. "It has taken fifty years of study to produce this!" cried Cano, hurling the statue to the pavement. For this indignity to a saint he was suspended by the Chapter of Granada. In 1658 the king restored Cano, and required him to complete a crucifix which the queen had ordered.

Cano was a greater sculptor than painter, but he would have attained fame as a painter even had he never worked in marble. His earlier work in colour was tentative, eclectic, and of little originality, but his later pictures, which fill the churches of Granada and Malaga, are splendid in drawing, brilliant in a colouring that vividly recalls Van Dyck's, full of imagination, and bold in design. His flesh tints are pure, the pose of his figures is statuesque, the lines are sharp, vigorous, and classical, and he had a profound knowledge of chiaroscuro. Cano led an exemplary life, his great fault being his ungovernable temper; he was industrious, studious, and very generous. It is related of him that, often, when he had no money for alms he would make a drawing for the beggar to sell. His abnormal antipathy to Jews was exemplified on his death-bed when he refused the Sacrament from a priest who had given it to converted Jews. Among his works mention may be made of: "St. Agnes" (Berlin); "The Dead Christ" (Madrid); "Virgin and Child" (St. Petersburg); "St. Anthony of Padua" (Munich); "Madonna and Child", sculpture, in the church of Lebrija (the ancient city of Nebrissa).

External links

• Paintings of Alonso Cano on Insecula
• Scholarly articles about Alonso Cano both in web and PDF at the Spanish Old Masters Gallery
• Alonso Cano on Artcyclopedia
• Jusepe de Ribera, 1591–1652, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Alonso Cano (see index)