Spanish sculptor and architect. In 1553 he was apprenticed in the studio in Avila of Juan Bautista Vázquez, whom he accompanied to Seville in 1561. There, before 1568, he married the daughter of the architect Hernán Ruiz II. In 1573 he was examined in the art of the sculptor and architect ('arte de escultor y entallador al romano y arquitecto'). In 1567, having completed his years of apprenticeship, he left Vázquez's studio and established a workshop. He was above all a very skillful image-maker, and provided Spain with a complete religious iconography, principally of themes centering around the Virgin and the childhood of Christ. The art of Hernández inaugurated a new trend in Spanish art towards a sweet and quiet manner that was to contribute to the style of popular religious sculpture in the 17th century. //