Calle de Francisco Ricci

This street in Gaztambide was formerly called calle de San Fausto. In 1887 it came to honor Francisco Rizi, one of the painters who best captured the Madrid of the Habsburgs. Rizi was born in Madrid in 1614, son of the Italian Antonio Ricci, who came from Ancona to decorate El Escorial; hence the double c on the sign, though the painter signed Rizi. He was among the first Spaniards to embrace the full Baroque, with an eye on Rubens and Van Dyck, and rose to painter to the king. His best-remembered canvas is the Auto de Fe in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid, from 1683, painted for Charles II and now in the Prado. Claudio Coello trained in his workshop and would eventually eclipse him. He died in 1685 at El Escorial. The street runs briefly between Blasco de Garay and Guzmán el Bueno.