MAINO, Fray Juan Bautista
(b. 1581, Pastrana, d. 1649, Madrid)

Adoration of the Kings

1612
Oil on canvas, 315 x 174 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

The artist was trained in the studios of Toledo, and he became the drawing master of Philip IV. He stands apart from his colleagues in resisting the general predilection for dark settings with the light coming from a single or one principal source. The transparency of his colors and the brightness of his tones are combined with a very individual sense of space in which something of the late sixteenth century goes hand in hand with a love of realistic detail typical of the new age. Three of Maino's works that claim attention are the Adoration of the Shepherds and its companion-piece, the Adoration of the Kings (in the Prado) as well as the Pentecost in the Toledo Museum.