Juan Bautista Vázquez the Elder

Juan Bautista Vázquez el Viejo (1510 in Pelayos, province of Salamanca Castile and Leon – 12 June 1588 in Llerena, province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain) was a Spanish sculptor.

Born in Pelayos (province of Salamanca), as a small child he moved with his family to Ávila, where the lived adjacent to the main market square.

In 1558, Francisca Blázquez, widow of sculptor Isidro de Villoldo, brought him back to Ávila to complete the figures of the main altarpiece of the Charterhouse of Seville, which Villodo had left unfinished at his death.

He settled there, putting together an important studio with collaborators including his brother-in-law and carver Juan de Oviedo the Elder, Miguel de Adán, Gaspar del Águila, and Jerónimo Hernández.

This studio would play a major role in establishing and consolidating the Sevillian school of sculpture.