Acislo Antonio Palomino

1655 – 1726

Spanish historical painter and writer on art, called the Spanish Vasari. (His full name is Acisclo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco.) He was born of good family and studied philosophy, theology and law in Cordoba, receiving also lessons in painting from Valdes Leal, who visited Córdoba in 1672, and afterwards from Alfaro (1675). He moved to Madrid in 1678 and married soon afterwards. In 1688 he was appointed painter to the king. He visited Valencia in 1697, and remained there three or four years devoting himself to fresco painting. Between 1705 and 1715 he resided for considerable periods at Salamanca, Granada and Córdoba. After the death of his wife in 1725 Palomino took priests orders. He painted frescoes and easel pictures in Valencia, Córdoba, and Granada, but he is famous chiefly for his history of art (in 3 volumes, 1715-24), the third volume of which contains a wealth of biographical material concerning Spanish artists of the 16th and 17th centuries. It was partially translated into English in 1739; an abridgment of the original was published in London in 1742, and afterwards appeared in a French translation in 1749. A German version was published at Dresden in 1781, and a reprint of the entire work at Madrid in 1797.

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