LLANOS, Fernando - b. ~1480 Valencia, d. ~1530 ? - WGA

LLANOS, Fernando

(b. ~1480 Valencia, d. ~1530 ?)

Spanish painter. He and Fernando Yáñez (Yáñez de la Almedina) are first recorded in Valencia around 1506, painting in a style originating in Florentine art and the work of Leonardo da Vinci, although it is also recorded that in 1505 a Fernando Spagnuolo was receiving payment for work on the cartoon for Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari (1503-08; destroyed; copy, Florence, Uffizi). Although there is no documentary evidence to show that the two trained in Italy, it seems likely in the light of the innovations that they brought to Renaissance Valencian painting, including models derived from Leonardo, and a preference for scenes with monumental architecture in which figures are symmetrically arranged in parallel planes in the Italian manner. It is difficult to distinguish between the styles of the two artists, as the differences in their work are slight, although it seems that Yañez was the more gifted. He conceived his figures with greater monumentality, and his work was more classical and serene, painted with a greater clarity and breadth of composition than that of his colleague. The figures painted by Llanos are smaller and more restless and are sometimes unusually proportioned.

Death and Assumption of the Virgin

In 1507 Fernando Y�ñez de la Almedina and Fernando Llanos signed a contract for a series of 12 panel paintings that serve as shutters for the altarpiece in the sanctuary of the Cathedral in Valencia. The six exterior panels represent six of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, while the six interior panels depicts scenes from her life.

Both artists were influenced by Leonardo da Vinci although they interpreted Leonardo in different ways. The Death and Assumption of the Virgin is universally accepted as the work by Llanos.

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Rest during the Flight to Egypt

From 1507 Llanos collaborated with Fernando Y�ñez in the execution of the retable for the high altar in the Valencia Cathedral. He produced 12 rectangular panels dedicated to he life of the Virgin. Although it is difficult to differentiate between the works of Llanos and Y�ñez, critics universally accept Rest during the Flight to Egypt as the work by Llanos.

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Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist

This painting clearly shows the influence of Leonardo da Vinci. Llanos was deeply influenced by his trip to Italy and was instrumental in the introduction of the Italian Renaissance to Spain. A date of execution of the painting c. 1505 seems probable, when the artist was still in Italy.

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Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist, Attended by Angels

In this panel influence of Leonardo clearly visible in the figure and compositional types. The style of the present work is entirely consistent with other paintings produced by Llanos during his stay in Murcia from 1514-16, by which date his collaboration with Fernando Yañez had come to an end and both painters had begun to develop their own divergent styles. Often to be found in works of this date is the repetition of a motif or type found in the great altarpiece in Valencia and in this sense the present work is no exception; the pose and drapery of the upper half of the Virgin echoes that in the Rest on the Flight into Egypt.

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