Navarrete: A Spanish Mannerist

Juan Fernández de Navarrete - Baptism of Christ - c. 1568 - Oil on panel, 49 x 37 cm - Museo del Prado, MadridSpanish painter and draughtsman Juan Fernández de Navarrete (1538-1579) was a deaf mute, and the principal sources for his life and work are writings by Fray José de Sigüenza and Ceán Bermúdez. He received his early training in the Hieronymite monastery of La Estrella in Logroño, and as a young man he traveled in Italy, visiting Milan, Rome, Naples and Venice.The majority of Navarrete's paintings were commissioned for the royal monastery church of S Lorenzo at the Escorial near Madrid, which was then being built by Philip II. This painting is a trial piece that Navarrete executed for Philip II in 1565. The painting shows that the artist was familiar with the work of the later Michelangelo, and his follower Daniele da Volterra. This makes sense, since in the mid-1550s Navarrete stayed in Rome.