Antonio de Pereda

Antonio de Pereda y Salgado was a Spanish Baroque-era painter, best known for his still lifes.

Pereda was born in Valladolid, the eldest of three brothers from an artistic family. His father, mother and two brothers were all painters. He was educated in Madrid by Pedro de las Cuevas and was taken under the protective wing of the influential Giovanni Battista Crescenzi.

As well as still lifes and religious paintings, Pereda was known for his historical paintings such as the Relief of Genoa (1635), depicting a historical event of the 1620s. This was painted for the Salón de Reinos of the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid as part of the same series as Velázquez's Surrender of Breda.

After Crescenzi's death in 1635, Pereda was expelled from the court and began to take commissions from religious institutions.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023