Juan Carreño de Miranda (1614 - 1685)

• Was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period.
• Born in Avilés in Asturias, son of a painter with the same name, Juan Carreño de Miranda.
• His family moved to Madrid in 1623.
• He trained in Madrid during the late 1620s as an apprentice to Pedro de las Cuevas and Bartolomé Román.
• He came to the notice of Velázquez for his work in the cloister of Doña María de Aragón and in the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Marlofa, La Joyosa.

• In 1658, Carreño was hired as an assistant on a royal commission to paint frescoes in the Alcázar of Madrid; later destroyed in the fire of 1734.

• In 1671, upon the death of Sebastián de Herrera, he was appointed court painter to the queen and began to paint primarily portraits.

• He refused to be knighted in the Order of Santiago, saying "Painting needs no honors, it can give them to the whole world".

• His main pupils were Mateo Cerezo, Juan Martín Cabezalero, José Jiménez Donoso and José de Ledesma.

• He died in Madrid.

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