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(bapt March 9, 1734; d Madrid, Aug 4, 1795).

Spanish painter and tapestry designer. In 1758 he won first prize in painting and a scholarship to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de S Fernando, Madrid, with his picture the Tyranny of Geryon (1758; Madrid, Real Acad. S Fernando Mus.). There he studied under António González Velázquez. In 1759 he returned to Saragossa and married Sebastiana Merklein, the daughter of his former teacher. In 1763 Bayeu went back to Madrid where he was invited by Mengs to work under his direction in the Palacio Real, mainly as a painter of frescoes. There he began work on one of his most important early royal commissions, Olympus: The Fall of the Giants (1764), a ceiling fresco in one of the public chambers of the Prince of the Asturias (in situ). The quality of the highly finished sketch for this (Madrid, Prado), with its delicate impasto and loose brushwork, indicates Bayeu’s early talent. In ...

(b Saragossa, May 23, 1746; d Aranjuez, March 2, 1793).

Spanish painter, tapestry designer and printmaker, brother of Francisco Bayeu. He was neither as talented nor as eminent as Francisco Bayeu, but he held several minor posts and was an important figure on the artistic scene in Madrid. From 1764 he studied in Madrid at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de S Fernando, where in 1766 he won first prize for painting. He alternated his studies with working for Anton Raphael Mengs and assisting Francisco with the frescoes at the Palacio Real. From 1765 he made cartoons for the Real Fábrica de Tapices de Santa Bárbara, first following Francisco’s sketches under his brother’s direction, later using his own compositions. These designs depict popular subjects in the Madrid tradition, but his figures reveal a pronounced academic quality and show a sense of gravity that sets them apart from the more mannered Rococo gestures of contemporary tapestry designers; this is apparent in 13 sketches for tapestry (after ...

(b Rouen, Nov 11, 1738; d Paris, May 7, 1826).

French painter, illustrator and writer. He began his studies in Rouen and, at 17, won first prize for drawing at the city’s Académie. Shortly afterwards he travelled to Paris, entering the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture as a student of Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre. In 1767–8 he was in Rome, a fact confirmed by a number of dated and inscribed drawings and paintings, including the pen, ink and wash drawing Landscape Inspired by the Gardens of the Villa d’Este at Tivoli (Paris, Ecole N. Sup. B.-A.). He was in Switzerland in 1776, where he spent several years drawing illustrations for Beát Zurlauben’s Tableau de la Suisse ou voyage pittoresque fait dans les treize cantons du Corps Helvétique (Paris, 1780–86). In 1780, having returned to France, he was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale and received (reçu) in 1785 with Jupiter Asleep on Mount Ida (Paris, Ecole N. Sup. B.-A.). Thereafter he regularly exhibited moralistic pictures at the Salon until ...