Biography

Spanish architect and painter, active mainly in Granada. He worked in Italy in his early career (which is ill documented) and was one of the first Spanish artists to break entirely with medieval tradition and show a full understanding of Renaissance ideals. His earliest dated work, The Virgin with the Souls of Purgatory (Prado, Madrid, 1517), was painted in Italy and is thoroughly Raphaelesque in style.

Machuca was back in Spain by 1520, and although he worked mainly as a painter, he is most important as the architect of the Palace of Charles V in the grounds of the Alhambra in Granada, begun in 1527, which is completely Italianate in style. Most of Machuca's work as a painter has disappeared.