Background
José Luzán was born on December 15, 1710, in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, the son of the gilder and painter Juan Luzán.
José Luzán was born on December 15, 1710, in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, the son of the gilder and painter Juan Luzán.
Jose must have started in drawing and painting in the Drawing Academy that had created in the city the sculptor Juan Ramírez in 1714.
At sixteen José Luzán entered the service, as a servant of honor, of the Pignatelli, Counts of Fuentes, who, seeing his good gifts for painting, decided to send him in 1730 to Naples to complete his artistic development with the painter Mastroleo, condiscípulo of Solimena. There he remained for about five years, copying pictures of the great masters and acquiring a style and a fresh chromatism, in the line of Francesco Solimena.
Around 1735 José returned to Zaragoza, where his innovative style made him the most sought-after artist in the city. His artistic success exceeded the Aragonese borders, and thus, in 1741 he was appointed by King Philip V supernumerary painter of the royal house, and for the oath of office, he moved to Madrid, where he could treat the painters of the Court and examine their works and those of the royal collections. Returned to Zaragoza, he married in 1743 Teresa Zabalo, daughter of the painter Juan Zabalo.
From then on his fame was increasing, due to his peculiar style, with a soft and rich brushstroke and warm colors, fully Neapolitan. He was appointed reviewer of paintings by the Court of the Inquisition of Zaragoza, but his great vocation was undoubtedly the teaching of drawing and painting, which favored the vast majority of Aragonese artists of the time. He collaborated with José Ramírez, who had taken over the Drawing Academy on the death of his father Juan Ramírez, in 1739, and in a disinterested way, only concerned about the artistic advancement of his disciples.
In 1754, thanks to the support of its protectors, the Pignatelli, the Academy was moved to rooms on the ground floor of the Palace of these. There, Francisco Bayeu, Ramón Bayeu, José Beratón, Antonio Martínez, Francisco de Goya, and many more students were formed in oil drawing and technique, always showing their gratitude and recognizing of José Luzán as their first teacher.
The desire of the main artists of Zaragoza, since 1746 was the creation in Zaragoza of an Academy of Painting and Sculpture officially recognized, but the attempt was frustrated in successive occasions. The artistic studies were carried out with intermittence, until in 1778 and in the house of the Counts of Fuentes the School was reopened, with free education, being chosen for painting directors José Luzán, Juan Andrés Merclein, and Manuel Eraso, but every year next had to close due to lack of endowment.
The Royal Aragonese Economic Society of Friends of the Country would reopen it in 1784, but José Luzán would no longer be able to teach it, which would be transformed in 1792 into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Luis, because he died in the Pignatelli's house in 1785. He would not know, then, that happy outcome for the teaching of the arts in Zaragoza, for which he had fought all his life.
José Luzán adhered to the artistic traditions of Baroque. Next to tenebrism in his early works, he later acquired a taste for warm coloration, dominating yellow, ocher and red his palette, and lightened the burden of brushstrokes.
José married Teresa Zabalo, daughter of Juan Zabalo, also a painter and designer of altarpieces.
