1564 -1644 · Sevillian mannerism, theory of painting and sacred iconography

Controlled drawing, rigorous iconography, humanist culture and teaching make Francisco Pacheco a central figure in Seville where Velazquez is formed.

Francisco Pacheco was born in 1564 in Sanlucar de Barrameda and grew up in the cultivated environment of Seville under the protection of a canon uncle. He learned painting from Luis Fernandez between 1580 and 1585, in a Mannerist tradition nourished by Italy and Flanders. Pacheco built his position less through pictorial innovation than through the extent of his culture, his intellectual network and his ability to define the rules of the profession. His workshop became less a meeting place between painters, poets, ecclesiastics and humanists. He created altarpieces, portraits, drawings and religious decorations, while holding a Libro de description where he brought together the effigies of contemporary personalities. In as controller of sacred images for the Sevillian Inquisition, he ensures the doctrinal conformity of representations. This function explains the iconographic precision of his Immaculate Conception. The Virgin appears according to a type that Pacheco helps to codify: young woman standing, crowned with stars, dressed in white and blue, placed above the crescent moon and surrounded by Marian symbols. In the version with the poet Miguel Cid, doctrine, portrait of the donor and public devotion come together. The historical importance of Pacheco is also due to his teaching. Alonso Cano and especially Diego Velázquez pass through his workshop; Velázquez married his daughter Juana in 1618. Pacheco recognized his student's talent and supported his rise to court. His treatise Arte de la pintura, published after his death in 1649, defends painting as a liberal art and describes materials, processes, iconography and the painter's intellectual training. With the Carducho Dialogues, it constitutes one of the major texts of 17th century Spanish theory. Died in Seville in 1644, Pacheco remains less the stylistic precursor of his students than the scholarly, professional and social framework which makes their success possible. The "Francisco Pacheco" selection notably compares the Immaculate Conception. His reading favors the material.

Pacheco thinks of painting as complete knowledge: the image must be technically correct, intellectually founded and theologically readable.