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3 unusual facts about John Baptist Medina


John Baptist Medina

Bernard Lens II, otherwise known as a painter of enamels, is signed as the artist for Book IV, and Medina is signed as the artist for one more plate than some say would seem likely to be his on stylistic grounds.

Medina was the son of a Spanish army captain posted to Brussels, where he was born and later trained by François Duchatel, before coming to London in 1686 and setting up his studio in Drury Lane.

Although he appears to have painted other types of work than portraits, the only works other than portraits known to survive are his eight (out of a total of twelve plates prefacing each book of the poem) engraved book illustrations for the fourth edition, the first to be illustrated, of Paradise Lost by John Milton, published in London by Jacob Tonson in 1688.


1659 in art

John Baptist Medina, Flemish-Spanish portrait painter and illustrator of Paradise Lost (died 1710)


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