This is the first comprehensive account of the life and work of the Spanish artist Pedro de Villafranca y Malagón (c. 1615–1684). His unrivalled skill as an engraver was recognised through his appointment in 1654 as printmaker to the king of Spain, a position that was unique during the reign of Philip IV. Villafranca’s portraits are closely aligned with those of the court painter Diego Velázquez (1599–1660), insofar as they reveal each artist’s remarkable ability to capture the character of their sitter. In addition to portraits of the monarch and the royal family, Villafranca engraved more than 300 prints, mainly as book illustration, alongside working as professional painter, art restorer, appraiser and project manager – activities that reflect his need to survive in the competitive art world of Madrid.

Seventeenth-century Spain witnessed immense economic, social and artistic changes, not only in its capital but throughout its Empire. Villafranca’s oeuvre also reflects the wider European print culture, including the work of other influential artists, among them Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). Villafranca’s striking compositions reveal collaboration and awareness of contemporary artistic developments while responding to the demands of the individuals who controlled and manipulated imagery for political, religious, intellectual and artistic ends. As such, study of his prints allows us to appreciate a principal conduit for the transmission of visual culture during the final decades of the Spanish Golden Age.

Mark McDonald was curator of Old Master prints and Spanish drawings at the British Museum, London, before moving to the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2014. He has curated exhibitions at the British Museum, the Museo Nacional del Prado and more recently at the National Gallery, Washington DC (in collaboration with C. D. Dickerson), Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain (2019, Eleanor Tufts Award) and at The Met, Goya’s Graphic Imagination (2021) and Mexican Prints at the Vanguard (2024). His publications include The Print Collection of Ferdinand Columbus: 1488–1539 (2004, Mitchell Prize; Eleanor Tufts Award), and a study and catalogue of the print collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo (2017–19). Mark has taught at The Courtauld Institute, London and at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. He is on the editorial board of Print Quarterly and co-editor of the Hispanic Research Journal.