Palomino, Antonio

Palomino, Antonio (bapt. Bujalance, nr. Córdoba, 1 Dec. 1655; d Madrid, 12 Aug. 1726).
Spanish painter and writer on art, active mainly in Madrid, where in 1688 Charles II (see Habsburg) appointed him one of his court painters. He was famous in his day for frescos in churches in Madrid and elsewhere, but he is now best known for his book El museo pictórico y escala óptica (The Pictorial Museum and Optical Scale, vol. i, 1715; vols. ii and iii, 1724). The first two volumes are devoted respectively to the theory and the practice of art, and the third volume is a collection of biographies, the most important source for the history of Spanish art from the 16th to the early 18th century. It earned Palomino the nickname ‘the Spanish Vasari’.