Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo occupation painter
Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo  (c.1612 – February 10, 1667) 
was a Spanish Baroque portrait and landscape painter, the most distinguished of the followers of his father-in-law Velázquez, whose style he imitated more closely than did any other artist. A fine painter himself, Mazo was a master of landscape, as proven by his most celebrated work View of Saragossa.Early career
In 1643, Mazo became Master of Drawing and personal painter of the heir to the Spanish Crown, Baltasar Carlos, Prince of Asturias, who in 1645 became godfather of his fifth child.  Prince Baltasar Carlos commissioned him to copy hunt scenes by Paul de Vos, Rubens, Jordaens and other Flemish painters. Mazo accompanied the prince to Aragón in 1646. During this trip, he painted the famous View of Saragossa and a last portrait of the young prince who died unexpectedly at the age of sixteen. After the death of the prince, Philip IV decreed that the perquisites that Mazo had been receiving be continued, and kept him employed as a painter.
Mazo first expressed his talent copying works of Venetian masters in the royal collections, such as Tintoretto, Titian, and Paul Veronese, a task that he performed with assiduity and success. His colorful work as a copyist opened his way to the secrets of the great masters of his time, especially Rubens and Jordaens. Such copies must have considerably cut down the time available for his original work, as did the production of replicas of Velázquez's royal portraits that he painted; an example would be his portrait of Infanta Margaret Theresa that today is exhibited next to the Velázquez original in a Viennese museum. Nevertheless, Mazo still felt free to follow his own bent for brilliancy of execution and true-to-life naturalism.
Mazo rarely signed his works, which furthered the confusion with the work of Velázquez, making it difficult to separate the authorship of their paintings. In fact, there are few extant paintings that scholars agree are his; these include View of Saragossa (1646, Prado); Portrait of Queen Mariana in Mourning Dress (1666, National Gallery, London); and The Family of the Painter (c. 1660–1665, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). He has some of his works in the Prado, near those of his mentor.
Although Mazo acquired great skills as a portrait painter, some of his most interesting works are hunting pieces and landscapes in which he developed a more personal style with a respect for reality.  They are animated with a multitude of figures treated with extreme detail. His landscapes are works of great observation as exemplified by his paintings View of Saragossa and  Stag Hunt at Aranjuez – both were commissioned by Philip IV. He also painted some still lifes. In 1657 Mazo traveled to Italy trying to recover the dowry of his eldest daughter Ines who had become a widow in Naples. During this trip, Mazo painted The Arch of Tito that shows the influence of Roman landscapes.
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