Francisco de Herrera

Francisco de Herrera (1622–1685), known as Herrera the Younger, was born in Seville, the son of the painter Francisco Herrera the Elder, under whom he began his training. His father's violent temper eventually drove him to Rome, where he spent six years studying architecture, perspective and the antique, and where his still lifes of fish earned him the nickname the Spaniard of the Fish. Back in Seville in 1656, he founded the city's academy and in 1660 became its sub-director under Murillo, a post he resented. Around 1661 he moved to Madrid, where he painted a Triumph of St Hermengild for the Carmelites and frescoes in San Felipe el Real that pleased Philip IV, who made him painter to the king and superintendent of royal buildings. Under Charles II he was master of the royal works and renovated the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza. He died in Madrid in 1685. Two works here: St. Basil Dictating His Doctrine and St. Bonaventure Receiving the Host from the Hands of an Angel.