Francisco Camilo

Who was Francisco Camilo?

Francisco Camilo was a Spanish painter. Camilo was the son of an Italian who had settled at Madrid. When his father died, his mother remarried, and Camilo became the stepson of the painter Pedro de las Cuevas.

De las Cuevas brought Camilo up as his own son, teaching him painting. At the age of 18, Camilo was asked to paint, for the high altar of the Jesuits’ house at Madrid, a picture representing St. Francis Borgia.

The Count-Duke of Olivares ordered Camilo to do a series of paintings of Kings of Spain for the theater of Buenretiro, and also chose Camilo to adorn the western gallery of that palace with 14 frescoes from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Primarily a painter of religious works, Camilo did paintings for the monasteries of Madrid, Toledo, Alcalá, and Segovia. He painted and draped some of the statuary of Manuel Pereyra. There is a painting by this painter at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin titled Adoration of Shepherds.