Antonio Fernández Arias (died 1684) was a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 painter of the Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 period.

He was a precocious pupil of Pedro de las Cuevas

Pedro de las Cuevas

Pedro de las Cuevas, a Spanish painter, was born at Madrid in 1568. According to Palomino, he painted several pictures for private collections,for which he was more employed than for public edifices. He gained, however, more celebrity by his academy than by his own works...

, and employed at the age of 11 years to help in painting the main altar of chapel of Carmen Calzado de Toledo

Toledo, Spain

Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...

. By 22 years, he was one of the more prized painters in Madrid, employed by the Conde-Duque de Olivares along with Francisco Camilo

Francisco Camilo

Francisco Camilo was a Spanish painter. Camilo was the son of an Italian who had settled at Madrid. When his father died, his mother remarried, and Camilo became the stepson of the painter Pedro de las Cuevas....

 and Alonso Cano to paint the portraits in the Hall of the Kings of the Royal Palace of Madrid

Royal Palace of Madrid

The Palacio Real de Madrid is the official residence of the King of Spain in the city of Madrid, but it is only used for state ceremonies. King Juan Carlos and the Royal Family do not reside in the palace, choosing instead the more modest Palacio de la Zarzuela on the outskirts of Madrid...

. He never lacked commissions, he painted 11 paintings for the cloister of the convent of Agustines at San Felipe el Real, in which he represented among other topics, the Passion of Christ and the Baptism of Saint Cines. He painted Sts. Peter, Paul, John, and other saints for the order of Agonizantes de la calle de Fuencarral. Arias died poor in the general hospital of Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

.