Alonso Cano

Alonso Cano could paint, carve wood into vivid painted saints, and design buildings, a range that earned him the nickname the Spanish Michelangelo. He learned painting from Francisco Pacheco, the Seville teacher who also trained Velázquez, and sculpture from another local master, and he kept a temper that landed him in trouble.

In 1644 his wife was found stabbed to death in Madrid. Suspicion fell on Cano, and the court had him tortured to force a confession. He gave nothing, his innocence was accepted, and a runaway servant was later thought the likelier killer. The affair drove him from the capital for a time.

His last years were spent in his native Granada, where he was a cleric at the cathedral and its chief architect. Just before he died in 1667 he designed the cathedral's front, a tall arrangement of deep recessed arches that broke with the usual Spanish pattern. He was carving and designing to the end. On his deathbed, the story goes, he pushed away a crucifix a priest offered him because it was too crudely made, and asked for a plain cross instead.