Biography

Spanish painter. After youthful study with Spanish Baroque painter Alonso Cano, Pedro Atanasio Bocanegra absorbed many elements of Cano's art and followed in his master's footsteps to become a major painter in Granada. From 1668 he began to receive important commissions. In 1670 he painted a series of canvases (in situ) on the Life of the Virgin for the lateral walls of the church of the Charterhouse in Granada. These paintings displayed Cano's influence in their lively colouring and dynamic compositions, along with vigorous Baroque illusionistic effects. Almost immediately after finishing these works, he painted two more small compositions for the chancel depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi (in situ). He followed this commission with several large works in 1672-73 for the convent of the Discalced Trinitarians, also in Granada.

Bocanegra's late style still showed Cano's imprint, which he combined with his own softness of modeling and sentimentality. He painted mostly religious subjects and some portraits. Highly prolific and in demand, Bocanegra seems to have sacrificed quality for quantity.