| Support Type: | Wood Panel |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | Museo Nacional de Arte |
| Location History: | San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery, 2000 |
Baltasar de Echave Orio is another Mexican painter belonging to a strong lineage of painters. Certain reports state that he attained formal training under his father-in-law, the Mexican master Francisco de Zumaya after marrying Isabel de ibia in Mexico. He is the first painter in his direct family later becoming the head of a familial tradition. His son Baltasar de Echave Ibia and grandson Baltasar de Echave Rioja also became celebrated painters in colonial Mexico (New Spain). Echave Orio's style is a blend of Spanish renaissance and Florentine Mannerism, integrating religious Catholic themes common in colonial Mexico at the time. He is one of the pioneering mannerist painters of the period alongside Alonso Lopez de Herrera and Villalpando. La Adoracion de los Reyes or The Adoration of the Kings (also popularly known as The Adoration of the Magi) is his most famous and widely discussed work. The painting narrates the Biblical episode in which the three Magi present gifts to infant Jesus. The composition and colour indicate an European influence which can be understood as something Orio adopted or picked during his training in Spain when he received exposure to Venetian and Flemish models. The forms are yet typical Mannerist forms exhibiting elongated figures and dramatic poses with calm facial expressions. Like other Mannerist painters of the era, he laid the foundation for Mexican Baroque art in the coming centuries while serving as bridge to the Spanish renaissance tradition of the preceding centuries.
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