Benito Manuel de Agüero

A disciple of Alonso Cano and close to Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, this highly prolific artist specialized in landscapes with small mythological scenes that reflect the stylistic influence of French painter Claude Lorraine and Neapolitan painter Salvator Rosa. He was most actively involved in the decoration of the Buen Retiro and Aranjuez palaces, and the 1700 inventory of the latter lists thirty-three of his works, ten of which are now at the Museo del Prado. To a lesser degree, he also made religious paintings, including a Saint Ildephonsus for the convent church of the Agustinian nuns of Santa Isabel in Madrid. That work was destroyed in 1936.