Juan Bautista de la Peña (1710-1773)
• De la Peña was a spanish late-baroque painter.
• He was studying in Madrid with the Frenchman Michel-Ange Houasse.
• In 1730, together with his fellow student and friend the Aragonese Pablo Pernicharo, he left for Rome.
• In Rome he would remain for almost six years, then moving to Naples, from where he returned to Madrid in 1738.
• In 1739 he was appointed Chamber Painter.
• At the creation of the Preparatory Board of the Academy in 1744, Peña actively intervened, being appointed Director of Sculpture because the Painting places were occupied.
• In 1752 was one of the Lieutenant Directors of Painting.
• His violence and jealousy, by not obtaining the position of Director in 1753, earned him expulsion.
• Only in 1768, when Charles III was already reigning, was he replaced in the square.
• He died in 1773.
