Antonio Ponz

Antonio Ponz (1725–1792) was a Spanish painter.

He was born at Bejís in the province of Valencia. He was a pupil of Antonio Richarte at Valencia, then in 1746 moved to Madrid, where he studied for five years. He then went to Rome for a short time, but soon returned to help in repainting and compilation of the artworks at El Escorial. In 1771 he made a journey through Spain. In 1776 he was appointed secretary of the Royal Academy of San Fernando. He was a member of many of the art academies in the Peninsula. He wrote Comentarios de la Pintura and several other works.

Ponz received a comprehensive education in the humanities, arts and theology at Segorbe, University of Valencia, Gandia and the School of the Three Arts in Madrid. He lived in Italy between 1751 and 1760, where he expanded his knowledge of art. There he met Pedro Francisco Jiménez de Góngora y Luján, Duke of Almodovar, who would become Director of the Spanish Royal Academy of History (1792–1794) and formed a friendship with Anton Raphael Mengs. He studied classical art under Johann Joachim Winckelmann and history with Francisco Pérez Bayer. He settled in Rome and visited Naples in 1759 to view the newly discovered ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

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