DIAZ DEL RIBERO, FRANCISCO. - Spanish sculptor and architect, b. at Mazcuerras (Santander) in Jan. 1592, d. at Granada on 1 April 1670.
He had acquired a reputation as a skilled cabinetmaker through the choir stalls of the collegiate church of the Sacro Monte at Granada when, in 1623, he took the habit of the Society of Jesus at Seville as a coadjutor brother. Among his works, the monumental altars (retablos) that he erected in the churches of the Society at Granada, Malaga, Andujar, and Montilla are especially noteworthy, with ingenious chiaroscuro effects. At Granada he also worked as an architect (cloister of the College of the Gensiti, etc.). According to the ancient biographer, his life was distinguished by many mystical favors.
BIBL.: G. Aranda, El artífice perfecto ideado en la vida del hermano Fr. D. del R. coadiutor formado de la Compañía de Jesús, Seville 1696 (extracts reproduced in F. J. Sánchez Cantón, Fuentes literarias para la historia del art español, IV, Madrid 1941, pp. 527-44); E. Ortiz de la Torre, Arquitectos moncolares; Fr. D. del R., in Boletín de la Biblioteca Menéndez y Pelayo, 18 (1938), pp. 1-18, fig. 3.