Biography

Spanish painter and printmaker. He was the leading Baroque landscape painter of his generation in Seville. In 1646 he was married in Aracena, Huelva. He soon moved to Seville, where he married again in 1649. Nothing is known of his apprenticeship, and it is doubtful that Francisco de Herrera the Elder was his teacher. Iriarte's style was strongly influenced by Flemish landscape, which was then extremely popular in Seville, in particular by the landscapes of Josse de Momper II. The signed and dated Landscape with Shepherds (1665; Madrid, Prado) serves as a touchstone for all attributions.

Between 1650 and 1700 Iriarte was second only to Bartolomé Murillo as the artist most sought after by collectors in Seville. He was one of the founders of the Academy of Painting in Seville and he became secretary of this institution. He also painted religious scenes. An Annunciation altarpiece (untraced) was documented in the church of the Brotherhood of Charity in Seville, which also owned a print by Iriarte. A pair of drawings (1669; Paris, Louvre) is signed as if they were to have been made into prints. Palomino reported that Iriarte collaborated with Murillo, whose own landscape style he influenced strongly. A copy after Francisco de Zurbarán with the landscape painted by Iriarte is documented in 1681. Landscapes by Iriarte were usually collected in sets or series. One set is identified as a Morning and Evening (untraced), and series of architectural perspectives by Iriarte are listed in contemporary inventories.