Juan Lovera

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Self-portrait (date unknown) Lovera-selfportrait.jpg
Self-portrait (date unknown)
Portrait of Simon Bolivar (1827) Simon Bolivar - Juan Lovera, 1827.jpg
Portrait of Simón Bolívar (1827)

Juan Lovera (11 July 1776, Caracas - 29 January 1841, Caracas) was a Venezuelan painter, best known for his portraits and historical scenes relating to his country's independence movement.

Caracas Capital City in Capital District, Venezuela

Caracas, officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and centre of the Greater Caracas Area. Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range. Terrain suitable for building lies between 760 and 1,140 m above sea level, although there is some settlement above this range. The valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the coast by a steep 2,200-metre-high (7,200 ft) mountain range, Cerro El Ávila; to the south there are more hills and mountains. The Metropolitan Region of Caracas has an estimated population of 4,923,201.

Contents

Biography

His father was the Chandler of Caracas Cathedral and he received his first art lessons at the Dominican convent of San Jacinto. [1] Later, he was apprenticed to Antonio José Landaeta (?-?), one of a family of influential Baroque painters in 18th-Century Caracas. [2] By 1799, he had his own workshop, where two of his first portrait sitters were Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland. [1]

A chandlery was originally the office in a medieval household responsible for wax and candles, as well as the room in which the candles were kept. It could be headed by a chandler. The office was subordinated to the kitchen, and only existed as a separate office in larger households. Whether a separate office or not, the function was naturally an important one, in a time before electric light, and when production of candles was often done privately. It was closely connected with other offices of the household, such as the ewery and the scullery. With this use, the term is largely obsolete today but can refer to a candle business. As such, a "chandler" is a person who sells candles.

Caracas Cathedral Church in Caracas, Venezuela

The Caracas Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Metropolitan archdiocese of Caracas, located on the Plaza Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela. Its chapel of the Holy Trinity is the burial site of the parents and wife of Simón Bolívar. The Nuestra Senora de Venezuela y Santa Ana is a square (cuadra) situated between the cathedral and the central plaza, which is walled on three sides, but open to the east where it faces the cathedral.

Dominican Order Roman Catholic religious order

The Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominican Order, is a mendicant Catholic religious order founded by the Spanish priest Dominic of Caleruega in France, approved by Pope Honorius III via the Papal bull Religiosam vitam on 22 December 1216. Members of the order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally carry the letters OP after their names, standing for Ordinis Praedicatorum, meaning of the Order of Preachers. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, active sisters, and affiliated lay or secular Dominicans.

He fought for the cause of independence, which resulted in his persecution following the collapse of the First Venezuelan Republic in 1812. Two years later, when Caracas was invaded by the army of José Tomás Boves, he fled to Cumaná. Some accounts say he remained there, teaching art, others say he travelled through the West Indies. [2] Either way, after Venezuela became part of Gran Colombia, he returned to Caracas.

José Tomás Boves Spanish general

José Tomás Boves, was a royalist caudillo of the llanos during the Venezuelan War of Independence, particularly remembered for his use of brutality and atrocities against those who supported Venezuelan independence. Though nominally pro-Spanish, Boves showed little deference to any superior authority and independently carried out his own military campaign and political agenda.

Cumaná Place in Sucre, Venezuela

Cumaná is the capital of Venezuela's Sucre State. It is located 402 kilometres (250 mi) east of Caracas. Cumaná was one of the first settlements founded by Europeans in mainland America and is the oldest continuously-inhabited, European-established settlement in the continent. Attacks by indigenous peoples meant it had to be refounded several times. The municipality of Sucre, which includes Cumaná, had a population of 358,919 at the 2011 Census; the latest estimate is 423,546.

Gran Colombia Former republic

Gran Colombia is the name historians use to refer to the state that encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America from 1819 to 1831. The state included the territories of present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, and parts of northern Peru, western Guyana and northwestern Brazil. The term Gran Colombia is used historiographically to distinguish it from the current Republic of Colombia, which is also the official name of the former state.

In 1821, Carlos Soublette offered him the position of Corregidor, which he reluctantly accepted and, one year later, was promoted to Alcalde ordinario. [1] From 1821 to 1823, he also worked on decorating the meeting room of the Cabildo.

Carlos Soublette Venezuelan politician

Carlos Soublette was the President of Venezuela from 1837 to 1839 and 1843 to 1847 and a hero of the Venezuelan War of Independence.

A corregidor was a local administrative and judicial official in Spain and in its overseas empire. They were the representatives of the royal jurisdiction over a town and its district.

<i>Cabildo</i> (council) Spanish colonial, and early post-colonial, administrative council which governed a municipality

A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a Spanish colonial, and early post-colonial, administrative council which governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected; but they were considered to be representative of all land-owning heads of household (vecinos). The colonial cabildo was essentially the same as the one developed in medieval Castile.

After 1824, he had a number of notable figures as portrait sitters, including José Antonio Páez, Cristóbal Mendoza, Simón Bolívar and José María Vargas. He was also an associate of General Francisco de Paula Avendaño (1792-1870), who established Venezuela's first lithographic workshop in 1828. [3]

José Antonio Páez President of Venezuela

José Antonio Páez Herrera, commonly known as José Antonio Páez, was a Venezuelan leader who fought against the Spanish Crown for Simón Bolívar during the Venezuelan War of Independence. He later led Venezuela's independence from Gran Colombia.

Cristóbal Mendoza President of Venezuela

José Cristóbal Hurtado de Mendoza y Montilla, commonly known as Cristóbal Mendoza, was a Venezuelan lawyer, politician, writer, and academic. Cristobal is best known for serving as the first official President of Venezuela from 1811 to 1812. After earning a master's degree in philosophy in Caracas and his doctor utriusque juris in the Dominican Republic, early in his professional career he served in various law firms in Trujillo, Mérida, and Caracas. He moved to Barinas in 1796 to practice law, and in 1807 was elected Mayor of Barinas. In 1810, Mendoza joined the insurgent movement started by wealthy Caracan citizens against the Spanish crown, and in 1811 was elected to represent the province of Barinas in the newly founded Constituent Congress of Venezuela. Days later he was appointed the first president of the First Republic of Venezuela, a role he shared as part of a triumvirate. Until his term ended in March 1812, Mendoza began the war for independence against the parts of Venezuela that still supported the Spanish monarchy, authored the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence, and also took part in constructing the first Constitution of the Republic of Venezuela.

Simón Bolívar Venezuelan military and political leader, South American libertador

Simón José Antonio de la cruz Santa maria Trinidad Bolívar Palacios Ponte y Blanco, generally known as Simón Bolívar and also colloquially as El Libertador, or the Liberator, was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led the secession of what are currently the states of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama from the Spanish Empire.

His last years were devoted almost entirely to teaching. One of his most prominent students was Pedro Lovera (1826-1914), who was long believed to be his son, but may have been his nephew. [4] He was also a Professor at the drawing academy. The Caracas art society, founded after his death in 1841, was partly inspired as a way of honoring his memory.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Juan Lovera @ Wikihistoria del Arte Venezolano.
  2. 1 2 Brief biography @ MCN Biografías.
  3. Nace Francisco de Paula Avendaño Archived 2015-04-14 at the Wayback Machine . @ EnContrArte
  4. Pedro Lovera @ Wikihistoria del Arte Venezolano.

Further reading

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Juan Lovera at Wikimedia Commons