Considerations on Alonso Cano’s universality and his fame as an architect (1601-1667)

Abstract

With his works, Alonso Cano won renown as an universal artist, a fame that still lasts today in some measure thanks to the contribution of his first biographers: Lázaro Díaz del Valle (1656-1659) and Antonio Palomino (1724). These texts have remarkable coincidences as well as some significant discrepancies, all of them analysed here. First of all, I appraise the purpose and meaning, in both biographies, of the order used to elucidate Cano’s artistic traits (painter, sculptor and architect) and his formative process. Next, I consider the importance given by Díaz del Valle and Palomino to Cano’s fame as an architect in relation to his artistic development and his vain attempts to secure an official position as Master Builder. In fact, Cano would only obtain this title just a few months before his demise, although he sought after this accreditation for years and his endeavour proved to be decisive for him and for the evolution of Spanish architecture.