José Antolínez

José Antolínez painted religious pictures in the loose, glowing style of later Spanish Baroque. His Immaculate Conceptions are his best-known subject: the young Virgin in white and blue, lifted on clouds and surrounded by swirling angels, painted with quick, light brushwork.

He was born and died in Madrid and trained in the studio of Francisco Rizi. He was known as proud and sharp-tongued, and stories survive of the pranks he played on fellow painters. His short career still left a range of religious and mythological works. His Immaculate Conception of 1666 is in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid, and others hang in the Ashmolean in Oxford, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Prado. He also decorated a chapel in Jaén Cathedral.

In his Immaculate Conception, notice how the drapery and the clouds seem to move together, pulling the eye upward.