Brief Biography-Juan Pantoja de La Cruz was born in Valladolid c. 1553. He entered the atelier of Alfonso Sanchez Coello iin Madrid; there, he excelled in his work so much that Philip II made him a court painter and valet-de-chambre. After the death of Coello, he became a painter for the king. Pantoja stayed in Valladolid from 1601 to 1606, when the court, under Philip III, made it the capital of Spain for that period. He was a renowned portraitist for the aristocracy and excelled in landscape painting through his religious subjects. He painted animals to such perfection that when he painted an eagle for the king, the royal bird, on seeing it for the first time, attacked it with such fury he ripped the canvas into fragments. Along with Coello, Pantoja had a later influence on the works of Diego Velázquez. Pantoja’s paintings are in Valladolid, The Prado, and the Palace Escorial outside Madrid.