Calle de Antonio Arias

It takes its name from Antonio Arias Fernández (Madrid, c. 1614–1684), a Baroque painter of the Madrid school trained under Pedro de las Cuevas. He took part in decorating the Golden Hall of the Alcázar (1639), and his best-known work, The Tribute Money (1646), hangs in the Prado. He died in poverty at the General Hospital of Madrid despite having enjoyed a comfortable position in the middle years of his career.

Antonio Arias Fernández was born in Madrid around 1614 and learned his craft in the workshop of Pedro de las Cuevas. Barely fourteen, he was already commissioned, so the story goes, for the main altarpiece of the Discalced Carmelites of Toledo, now lost. In 1639 he signed a contract alongside Rizi, Camilo and others to paint one of the canvases in the cycle of Spanish kings intended for the Golden Hall of the Alcázar, the grand undertaking driven by the Count-Duke of Olivares. Of that whole ensemble only Charles V and Philip II has reached us. He painted with bold forms, a clear palette and precise faces, indebted to Maíno and Zurbarán. The Prado holds two of his works, among them The Tribute Money, from 1646. The records of his second marriage show that he lived comfortably in his middle years. He died poor in 1684, at the General Hospital on the calle de Atocha.

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