Dictionary of


Art  &  Artist




 

Matias de Arteaga y Alfaro

 

Arteaga y Alfaro Matías de

(b Villanueva de los Infantes, Ciudad Real, 3 Nov 1633; d Seville, 12 Jan 1703). Spanish painter and etcher. He is first documented in Seville in 1652 and entered the painters’ guild there on 16 June 1656. His mature style is predominantly influenced by the work of Murillo and, to a lesser extent, that of Juan de Valdés Leal. In 1675, with Bernardo Simón de Pineda, Arteaga y Alfaro designed the new altarpiece in the Royal Chapel in Seville Cathedral. His first independent commission dates from 1676, yet his finest work is the set of nine Old Testament scenes from 1690 (Seville Cathedral). Although he also worked as a gilder, the trade in painting with the New World was an important source of income for him. He was a prolific but not gifted etcher, producing prints from 1661 until the year of his death. His exact relationship to the etcher Bartolomé Arteaga ( fl 1627) is unclear. Francisco de Arteaga (d 1679), Matías’s son (not his brother), was also an etcher. In Seville, Arteaga y Alfaro served the guild and the Real Academia de Santa Isabel de Hungría in various posts.

Abraham y Melchisedec

El racimo de la Tierra de promisión