Antolínez (y Sarabia), Francisco
(b Seville, c. 1644; d Seville, c. 1700). Spanish painter. A lawyer
by training, he continued his profession while practising as a
painter and was well educated in the humanities. Although he was a
prolific artist, few of his paintings are signed; only one, the
Adoration of the Shepherds (1678; Seville Cathedral, Sacristia de
los Cálices), bears his name. This painting is characteristic of his
style, depicting small, highly expressive figures in a setting with
dramatic lighting effects. Antolínez painted spacious interior
scenes and landscapes, always featuring small figures in lively
attitudes. He specialized in modestly sized pictures, usually in
series of eight or ten paintings of religious subjects, to which he
gave a pleasing decorative effect by the addition of landscape
backgrounds. Most of them were evidently painted in haste with an
eye to a quick sale. His output includes many scenes of episodes
from the lives of Jacob (Seville Cathedral, sacristy), Abraham and
David from the Old Testament, scenes from the life of the Virgin,
and New Testament scenes of the childhood of Christ (Madrid, Colegio
S Anton) and of the life of Christ (Fuentes el Año, parish church).
Many of these series have been dispersed into numerous different
locations. Antolínez is thought to have been related to the painter
JOSÉ ANTOLÍNEZ, who may have been his brother or his uncle.
