Juan de Juanes

1523 – 1579

Juan de Juanes was a Spanish painter, the son of the painter Vicente Macip (c.1475-c.1545), who had almost certainly studied in Italy, and probably in Venice. Juanes painted 'ideal' Counter-Reformation images, based on Leonardo 's Last Supper (engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi) and Raphael 's Madonnas, but also with some influence from Flanders, e.g. Quentin Massys. His work is technically less precise than that of his father in the delineation of form; he preferred sfumato effects in modelling, very different from the sharper sculptural outlines of Macip. In colour, Juanes preferred clear, luminous tones with which he achieved a characteristic Mannerist iridescence. His landscapes, too, differ from those of his father, becoming yet another decorative element. They often include classical ruins such as the pyramid of Caius Sextus or Egyptian obelisks, all of which are treated with the same delicacy and grace as his human forms. There are works in Madrid (Prado and Academy) and elsewhere in Spain.

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