Juan García de Miranda

One-armed since birth, he always painted with his left hand. In addition to training with Juan Delgado, he had access to the royal collections in the Palace where he became acquainted with Venetian and Flemish painting as well as the work of his great master Rubens and of Velázquez. In 1714, he painted the portrait of Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy. After the fire at the Real Alcázar in 1734, he became the official restorer alongside Andrés de la Calleja and worked directly on the canvases saved from the fire. This position enabled him to obtain the title of court painter a few months later, on 15 April of the following year. The finest of his pictorial output are the works he painted for various convents and churches; namely, Scene from the Life of Saint Didacus of Alcalá (1730) and The Life of Saint Teresa (1735) (B.B.A. in Encyclopaedia of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, 2006).