Sebastián López de Arteaga

Sebastián López de Arteaga (1610–1652) was a Spanish Baroque painter, born in Seville, who took the naturalistic style, with its strong contrasts of light and shade, to New Spain. Nothing is known of his training, but in 1630 he passed the master's examination of the Seville painters' guild, and he ran his own workshop in the city until 1638, when he moved to Cádiz. In 1640 he sailed for Mexico in the fleet of the viceroy Diego López Pacheco. His first recorded work there, in 1642, was a temporary triumphal arch for the entry of the next viceroy. He painted religious subjects and portraits, among them a lost series of former inquisitors, and became a notary of the tribunal of the Inquisition. From the mid-1640s his colours grew lighter. He died in Mexico City in 1652 of wounds received in a sword fight. Here: Doubting Thomas.