1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cano, Alonzo

CANO, ALONZO (1601–1667), Spanish painter, architect and sculptor, was born at Granada. He has left in Spain a very great number of specimens of his genius, which display the boldness of his design, the facility of his pencil, the purity of his flesh-tints and his knowledge of chiaroscuro. He learned architecture from his father, Miguel Cano, painting from Pacheco and sculpture from Juan Martinez Montañes. As a statuary, his most famous works are the Madonna and Child in the church of Nebrissa, and the colossal figures of San Pedro and San Pablo. As an architect he indulged in too profuse ornamentation, and gave way too much to the fancies of his day. Philip IV. made him royal architect and king’s painter, and gave him the church preferment of a canon. His more important pictures are at Madrid. He was notorious for his ungovernable temper; and it is said that once he risked his life by committing the then capital offence of dashing to pieces the statue of a saint, when in a rage with the purchaser who grudged the price he demanded. His known passionateness also (according to another story) caused him to be suspected, and even tortured, for the murder of his wife, though all other circumstances pointed to his servant as the culprit.