MENESES OSORIO, Francisco

Spanish painter. He was a member of the Seville Academy 1666-73 and mayordomo 1668-69 when he presented an Immaculate Conception (now lost). He was very probably taught by Murillo whose style he closely imitated into the eighteenth century. In 1681 he assisted Murillo with the retableGLOSSARYOrnamental panel behind an altar and, in the more limited sense, the shelf behind an altar on which are placed the crucifix, candlesticks, and other liturgical objects. The panel is usually made of wood or stone, though sometimes of metal, and is decorated with paintings, statues, or mosaics depicting the Crucifixion or a similar subject. Although frequently forming part of the architectural structure of the church, especially in the High Gothic period, retables can be detached and, sometimes, as in the case of the famous retable by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, "The Adoration of the Lamb" (1432, Cathedral of Saint-Bavon, Ghent), consist merely of a painting. Probably the most well-known retable is that in the Basilica of St Mark in Venice, which is one of the most remarkable examples in existence of the craft of the jeweler and goldsmith. Originally commissioned in 976, the St. Mark's retable was enlarged and enriched in the 13th century. With the development of freestanding altars, retables have become extinct. for the Capuchin Church, Cádiz, and after Murillo's death in 1682 Meneses completed the central Marriage of St Catherine (adding the cherubim) and executed the four lateral panels from Murillo's designs.

Other works by him are in Seville (Hospital de la Caridad and Museo de Bellas Artes), Osuna (a Mater DolorosaGLOSSARYThe Sorrowing Virgin at two Stations of the Cross, when the Virgin Mary meets her Son on his way to Calvary, or stands sorrowing beneath the Cross (Stabat Mater). dated 1703 in the Church of The Incarnation) and Greenville, Carolina (Bob Jones University). Few works by him can now be identified. Juan Garzon (d. 1729) was his assistant.

He was buried in the church of S. Miguel, Seville, on 20 January 1721, aged eighty.