Alonso Berruguete

• Year Born/Died: 1490–1561
• City Born: Paredes De Nava
• Significant Works: El sepulcro del cardenal Tavera, and La Mejorada
• Movement: Spanish Renaissance, Mannerism

After learning from his father, Alonso Berruguete traveled to Italy. There, he was impressed by Michelangelo’s works, the Laocoon, and other specimens of Hellenistic sculpture in the Vatican archives. One of Berruguete’s renowned works, ‘Salome,’ implies that his earlier paintings were inspired by Mannerism.

After returning to Spain, Berruguete was appointed court painter to Charles V and lived in Valladolid. However, since he failed to join the emperor in Germany, he didn’t receive any royal painting contracts. 

Therefore, Berruguete switched to architecture and art. His rich, opulent, but delicate ornamentation in his church deco is typical of the Plateresque style.