Casto Plasencia y Maestro (17 July 1846 – 18 May 1890) was a Spanish painter of landscapes, portraits and murals.

Biography

OrigenDeLaRepublicaRomana CastoPlasencia

Plasencia was born in

Cañizar Cañizar is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a province of Spain, belonging to the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. As of 2019 it had a population of 258,890 people. The population of t ...

. His father was a rural doctor, and he was orphaned as a teenager.Biografías de Gentes de Guadalajara
/ref> Under the sponsorship of several local nobles, he travelled to Madrid and entered the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the centre of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal aca ...

, where he became one of the first students who received fellowships to the new "Academia Española de Bellas Artes de Roma".Brief biography
@ the

Museo del Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...

website. His initial success came in 1878 with his "Origin of the Roman Republic", which won First Prize at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes and Third Prize at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. After becoming established in Madrid, he was chosen to do portraits of King

Alfonso XII Alfonso XII (Alfonso Francisco de Asís Fernando Pío Juan María de la Concepción Gregorio Pelayo de Borbón y Borbón; 28 November 185725 November 1885), also known as ''El Pacificador'' (Spanish: the Peacemaker), was King of Spain from 29 D ...

and Queen María. He also stood out as a painter of religious subjects. As the Assistant Manager on a project at the San Francisco el Grande Basilica, he participated in decorating the main

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

and was in charge of the paintings for the chapel of the

Order of Carlos III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III (, originally ; Abbr.: OC3) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent orders of merit bestowed by the Kingdom of Spain, ...

. He was also involved in decorating the Palacio del Marqués de Linares and was one of the founding members of the

Círculo de Bellas Artes The Círculo de Bellas Artes is a private, non-profit, cultural organization that was founded in 1880. Its building, located in Madrid, Spain, was declared ''Bien de Interés Cultural'' in 1981. The CBA is a major multidisciplinary centre with one ...

. In the summer of 1884, his fellow painter Tomás García Sampedro invited him to visit

Muros del Nalón Muros may refer to: *Muros, A Coruña, a municipality in the province of A Coruña in the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain *Muros, Sardinia, a comune in the province of Sassari in the region Sardini, Italy *Muros (comarca), a comarca in the P ...

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

. He was charmed by the area and continued to visit there every summer with other painters and students who formed what came to be known as the "", a group devoted to

plein-air ''En plein air'' (; French language, French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein ai ...

painting in the surrounding countryside. Plasencia died suddenly in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, aged only forty-three.

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Plasencia

Brief biography
@ MCN Biografías {{DEFAULTSORT:Plasencia, Casto 1846 births 1890 deaths 19th-century Spanish painters Spanish male painters Spanish Orientalist painters Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando alumni 19th-century Spanish male artists

Biography

References

Further reading

External links