Alonzo Cano

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(bapt Granada, 19 March 1601; d Granada, 3 Sept 1667). Spanish painter, sculptor and architect. He was an artist of rare versatility in 17th-century Spain, although his architectural work was not extensive. While he is also known for his drawings, only about 60 of these are definitely attributable to him, despite the many extant sketches with the name 'Cano' carelessly added by later hands. Unlike most of his Spanish contemporaries, such as Zurbar?n or Vel?zquez, whose artistic styles did not outlive them, Cano's artistic legacy is measured in part by the number of artists who trained in his workshop and went on to become important masters in their own right: the painters Pedro Atanasio Bocanegra, Juan de Sevilla (1643-95) and, more distantly, Jos? Risue?o, and the sculptors Pedro de Mena and Jos? de Mora, who began by following Cano's models and then continued to produce polychrome sculpture in a distinctive style typical of Granada.

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Spanish painter and architect. During the 1620s he assisted his father with the design of altar-pieces, but his west front of Granada Cathedral (from 1667) is stupendous, recalling arched Romanesque fronts (e.g. Lincoln Cathedral). Consisting of three huge arches, it does not employ the Orders, but rather species of pilasters, panels, and layers of planes.

Bibliography

• Kubler & Soria (1959)
• Rosenthal (1961)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

ALONZO CANO

Alonzo Cano or Alonso Cano (19 March 1601 – 3 September 1667) was a Spanish painter, architect and sculptor born in Granada. He learned architecture from his father, Miguel Cano, painting from Francisco Pacheco the master 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. Philip IV made him royal architect and kings painter, and gave him the church preferment of a canon, 1658, in order to take up a position as chief architect of the cathedral of Granada, where his main achievement in architecture was the facade,^[1] designed at the end of his life and erected to his design after his death.

Ideal portrait of a Spanish King, by Alonzo Cano

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.^[2] According to another story, his passionate nature also caused him to be suspected of the murder of his wife, and even tortured, though all other circumstances pointed to his servant as the culprit.

After the death of his wife he took Holy Orders.^[2]

External links

• Paintings of Alonzo Cano on Insecula

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alonso Cano

References

1. ^ Alonso Cano – Encyclopædia Britannica article
2. ^ ^{a b} Alonso Cano – Catholic Encyclopedia article

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

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