The career of Yáñez has always been linked with that of his nearly homonymous collaborator, Fernando de Llanos, the two of whom are known in the history of Spanish art as the "dos Ferdandos." Although they were natives of La Mancha, they studied in Florence in the early years of the sixteenth century, where they were strongly influenced by the art of Leonardo da Vinci. Yáñez is almost certainly the person called "Ferrando spagnolo," who is documented in 1505 as assisting Leonardo in the execution of his fresco in the Sala del Consiglio, Palazzo Vecchio.
The two painters arrived in Valencia in 1506 and collaborated on various projects over the next six or seven years. Their major work was a series of twelve large panel paintings for the high altar of the Valencia Cathedral, executed between 1507 and 1510. The division of labor, and thus the character of their individual styles, has been the subject of much discussion.
The collaboration of Yáñez and Llanos lasted until about 1513, when they began to pursue independent careers. Yánez was in Barcelona in 1515, and then apparently returned to Valencia, where he remained until approximately 1523. Around that year, Yáñez returned to his native village of La Almedina (Ciudad Real), but on 17 March 1525 he is documented in Cuenca. Here he was employed by a canon of the cathedral, Gómez Carrillo de Albornoz, in the decoration of the family chapel, for which he produced three altarpieces. These were completed by 1536 if not before. The date of the artist's death and his whereabouts after 1531 are yet to be discovered; it is only known he was active between 1505 and 1531. [Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 128.]
Artist Bibliography
1930
Post, Chandler, R. A History of Spanish Painting. 14 vols. Cambridge, 1953: 11:175-276.
1954
Garín Ortiz de Taranco, Felipe M. Yáñez de la Almedina. Valencia, 1954 (also 1978 ed.).
1986
Ibáñez Martínez, Pedro M. "Un nuevo documento sobre Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina." Boletín del Museo e Instituto Camón Aznar 26 (1986): 111-122.
1990
Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 128.
