Juan Carreño de Miranda
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Juan Carreño de Miranda a Spanish painter (1614-1685)
Born in Avilés in Asturias, son of a painter with the same name, Juan Carreño de Miranda trained in Madrid during the late 1620s as apprentice of Pedro de Las Cuevas and Bartolomé Roman.
Noble by descent he had an understanding of the workings and psychology of the royal court as no painter before him making, his portraits of the Spanish royal family in an unprecedented documentary fashion.
Most of his work are portraits of the royal family and court, though there are some altarpieces, early works commissioned mainly by the church.
In 1658 Carreño was hired as an assistant on a royal commission to paint frescoes in the Alcázar palace. In 1671 he was appointed court painter to the queen (pintor de cámara) and began to paint primarily portraits.
