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Vale [Valle], Amaro do
( fl 1584–1619). Portuguese painter and draughtsman. He was trained in Rome and from 1612 was court painter ( pintor régio) to Philip II of Portugal (III of Spain). We know that he worked in the circle of the Procaccini family in Milan, probably after his stay in Rome. The style of his work reflects the Mannerism of the Escorial, suggesting that Amaro do Vale had studied the works of Luca Cambiaso, Bartolomé Carducho or Orazio Borgianni, and seems to be more evolved in comparison with the Mannerist style of his contemporaries. His finest works have been destroyed or remain untraced; these include an Assumption of the Virgin (early 17th century; destr. 1755) from a retable in Lisbon Cathedral; a Calvary (early 17th century) for the Franciscan convent, Lisbon; and a fresco of the Nativity (late 16th century) painted for the refectory of the Hieronymite monastery, Belém, of which only fragments exist. Amaro do Vale’s drawings and preparatory studies (Lisbon, Mus. N.A. Ant.) show his confident draughtsmanship and give an idea of his delicate line, luminous brushstroke and careful mastery of naturalism. One drawing, St Luke Painting the Virgin (c. 1610), a study for the panel in the chapel of S Luke in the convent church of the Anunciada (untraced), was commissioned by the Irmandade dos Pintores de Lisboa (Fraternity of the Painters of Lisbon) in 1610 and is a particularly fine bistre sketch of vibrant plasticity and sensitive line.
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