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Peña, Juan Bautista de la
(b Alcalá de Henares, c. 1710; d Madrid, 8 Dec 1773). Spanish painter. He studied in Madrid under the French painter Michel-Ange Houasse and went to Rome on a bursary from Philip V, when his teacher returned to France in 1730. In Rome, de la Peña studied at the Académie de France, where he copied Raphael’s Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche (Rome, Villa Farnesina) and moved in the circle of followers of Carlo Maratti. With an annual stipend of 500 ducats he was one of the first to be awarded a fellowship by the Spanish sovereign to study in Italy. The programme he developed served as a model for future students of the Real Academia de S Fernando. After passing through Naples, he returned in 1738 to Madrid, where he was appointed Pintor de Cámara. Among his royal commissions is the Immaculate Conception (1739; Madrid, Pal. Pardo, Capilla Real), while for private patrons he painted such works as St Elias Handing the Cloak to St Elyseus (c. 1743; Madrid, S José). In 1744 he was proposed by Giovanni Domenico Olivieri as the director of sculpture in connection with the studies being made by the Junta Preparatoria for the creation of the Real Academia de S Fernando. When this was established in 1752, de la Peña was appointed director of painting with an annual stipend of 1500 reales, but his violent character soon led to his expulsion. In 1768 he re-entered the academy as honorary director of painting due to the favour of Charles III, whose portrait he had painted in Naples in 1737. He then gave the academy his earlier painting Venus and Adonis (1760–68; Madrid, Real Acad. S Fernando). His new position was strongly opposed by Anton Raphael Mengs.
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