Alonzo Cano or Alonso Cano (19 March 1601 – 3 September 1667)
was a Spanish painter, architect and sculptor born in Granada.
He learned architecture from his father, Miguel Cano; painting
in the academy of Juan del Castillo, and from Francisco Pacheco
the teacher of Velázquez; and sculpture from Juan Martínez
Montañés. As a sculptor, his most famous works are the Madonna
and Child in the church of Lebrija (also called Nebrija), and
the colossal figures of San Pedro and San Pablo. He was made
first royal architect, painter to Philip IV, and instructor to
the prince, Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias. The King gave
him the church preferment of a canon of the Granada Cathedral
(1652), in order to take up a position as chief architect of the
cathedral, where his main achievement in architecture was the
façade, designed at the end of his life and erected to his
design after his death. He was notorious for his ungovernable
temper; and it is said that once he risked his life by
committing the then capital offenc