Juan Pantoja de La Cruz (1553 – 1608)

• Was a Spanish painter.
• He worked for Philip II and Philip III.
• The Museo del Prado contains examples of his severe portraiture style.
• Juan Pantoja de La Cruz was born in 1553 in Valladolid.
• He was a pupil of the court painter Alonso Sánchez Coello in Madrid.
• He married in 1585 beginning to paint for the court around that time.
• After Sanchez Coello's death in 1588, Pantoja took over his master workshop and became court painter to Philip II of Spain.
• Pantoja kept working for the court and the nobility, painting portraits of Prince Philip, the future Philip III, in 1592 and 1594.
• On Philip II's death in 1598, Philip III confirmed Pantoja's status as court painter.
• When the court settled in Valladolid in 1601, Pantoja moved to the new capital, remaining in this city, several years.
• Juan Pantoja de la Cruz painted a great number of state portraits with the combined forces of his studio, his attendants, apprentices, and collaborators.
• He was primarily a portrait painter to the royal family, (whom he accompanied on journeys to Valladolid, Burgos, Lerma and the Escorial), and to the higher aristocracy.
• Pantoja also painted religious works primarily commissioned by the Spanish Queen, Margaret of Austria, wife of Philip III.
• Pantoja returned with the court to Madrid and he died there on 26 October 1608.
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