MARTÍNEZ, Domingo
(Sevilla, 1688-1749)
Although little known today, Domingo Martínez (Seville, 1688–1749) was one of the most important Sevillian painters of the first half of the 18th century. A disciple of Juan Antonio Osorio and Lucas Valdés, his work denotes the clear influence of Murillo, in common with all Sevillian painters of the first quarter of the 18th century. By the second decade of that century, he was already running the most important workshop in Seville.
Martínez developed a vast repertoire, most notably of religious themes, and he was a prolific painter with a long list of civic and ecclesiastical clients in the Andalusian capital. In 1733, at the end of the “Lustro Real” (five-year period during which the Spanish monarchy and court were based in Seville), Philip V and Isabella Farnese invited him to work in Madrid as a royal painter, but he declined their offer to centre his entire career around the city of his birth.
His most important works include the mural decoration of the sacrament chapel in the church of San Lorenzo in Seville (1718), made with Gregorio Espinal; the pictorial ensemble that decorates the church of San Telmo in the same city (1724); the vault of the church attached to the convent of Santa Paula, also in Seville (1727); the canvases that form part of the altarpiece in the church of El Buen Suceso, in Seville (1733); and the large-format canvases in the chapel of La Virgen de la Antigua in Seville Cathedral.
