Juan de Valdés Leal

Juan de Valdés Leal (4 May 1622 – 15 October 1690) was a Spanish painter of the Baroque era.

He was born in Seville in 1622, and distinguished himself as a painter, sculptor, and architect. He worked for a time under Antonio del Castillo. Among his works are a History of the Prophet Elias for the church of the Carmelites; a Martyrdom of St. Andrew for the church of San Francesco in Córdoba; and a Triumph of the Cross for la Caridad in Seville. He was one of the founders of the Seville Academy along with his friend, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. He died in Seville.

His wife (daughter of Antonio Palomino), Isabella Carasquilla, was also a painter. She died in Seville as late as 1730. Their children were artists, including Lucas, Juan, Maria, and Laura de Valdés. His daughters specialized in portrait miniatures. Maria died a nun in the Cistercian Convent in Seville, in 1730.

Works

Several of his paintings treat the subjects of vanitas, transience and mortality:

• In ictu oculi - "in the blink of an eye".
• Finis gloriae mundi - "end of the glory of the world"

References

• Bryan, Michael (1889). Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves. ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume II L-Z). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. p. 604. http://books.google.com/books?id=K2cCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Michael+Bryan+Painters+Engravers#PPP7,M1. 

External links

• Juan de Valdés Leal Paintings at Art Renewal Center