Francisco Antolínez

Who was Francisco Antolínez?

Francisco Antolínez de Sarabia, who was born at Seville in 1644, was nephew of Joseph Antolinez. He was an historical and landscape painter, and studied in the school of Murillo, whose style and manner of colouring he followed. He went to his uncle at Madrid in 1672; but notwithstanding his having already distinguished himself as a painter, he left the profession for literary pursuits, and for the purpose of obtaining a lucrative situation at the bar, having been originally educated at Seville for the law. Being unsuccessful, he was compelled again to have recourse to painting, as a means of subsistence. It was then that he produced those small pictures from the Bible and the life of the Virgin, which are so much admired by amateurs for their invention, colour, and facility of execution. He died in 1700, regretted by the true friends of art, who lamented the misapplication of those talents with which he was endowed.