Diego de Borgraf

Very little information is known about de Borgraf's early life and training in Flanders. At the time of de Borgraf's birth in Antwerp in 1618, Flanders was a part of the dominions of the crown of Spain. He was the son of Lodewijk Borchgraeve and Joanna Ruebens.

Because of the Mannerist characteristics of his style is believed to have trained with the painter Hendrick de Clerck, a court painter in Brussels. This would mean he would have worked in Brussels and possibly established a relationship with the court. This may explain how he subsequently travelled to Spain where he resided for several years. He left for America, accompanying Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza in 1640. The Aragonese painter Pedro García Ferrer (1583–1660) was another artist who accompanied the Bishop. He must have been the principal artist in the Bishop's retinue since de Borgraf was much younger.^[3] It is possible, although not documented, that de Borgraf initially worked in the workshop of García Ferrer. This would explain why his name is only first mentioned 8 years after his arrival in America when he was one of the artists working on the altar screens for the cathedral of Puebla.^[4]

As long as Palafox and García Ferrer remained in Mexico, de Borgraf was not able to secure commissions on the scale of those undertaken by García Ferrer. However, when the latter returned with the bishop to Spain in 1649, de Borgraf became one of the leading artists in Puebla, where he was recorded from around 1649.^[3]

He operated in Puebla a workshop in which Diego and Antonio de Espinoza and José Márquez were his apprentices.^[4] He married three times. His first wife was María de Gasetas, with whom he had no children. The second time he married Francisca Rodríguez de Paredes, by whom he had children, who all died. He married a final time on 29 September 1671 to Ana Jiménez. Their marriage remained childless. He died in March 1686, and was buried on the 10th of the same month in the church of San Agustín.^[5]