His son FRANCISCO HERRARA (1622-1685), surnamed el Mozo (the young), was
also an historical and fresco painter. Unable to endure his father's
cruelty, the younger Herrera, seizing what money he could find, fled
from Seville to Rome. There, instead of devoting himself to the
antiquities and the works of the old Italian masters, he gave himself up
to the study of architecture and perspective, with the view of becoming
a fresco-painter. He did not altogether neglect easel-work, but became
renowned for his pictures of still-life, flowers and fruit, and from his
skill in painting fish was called by the Italians _Lo Spagnuolo degli
pesci_. In later life he painted portraits with great success. He
returned to Seville on hearing of his father's death, and in 1660 was
appointed subdirector of the new academy there under Murillo. His
vanity, however, brooked the superiority of no one; and throwing up his
appointment he went to Madrid. There he was employed to paint a San
Hermenegildo for the barefooted Carmelites, and to decorate in fresco
the roof of the choir of San Felipe el Real. The success of this last
work procured for him a commission from Philip IV. to paint in fresco
the roof of the Atocha church. He chose as his subject for this the
Assumption of the Virgin. Soon afterwards he was rewarded with the title
of painter to the king, and was appointed superintendent of the royal
buildings. He died at Madrid in 1685. Herrera el Mozo was of a somewhat
similar temperament to his father, and offended many people by his
inordinate vanity and suspicious jealousy. His pictures are inferior to
the older Herrera's both in design and in execution; but in some of them
traces of the vigour of his father, who was his first teacher, are
visible. He was by no means an unskilful colourist, and was especially
master of the effects of chiaroscuro. As his best picture Sir Edmund
Head in his _Handbook_ names his "San Francisco," in Seville Cathedral.
An elder brother, known as Herrera el Rubio (the ruddy), who died very
young, gave great promise as a painter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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