Manuel Arias Martínez, head of the Department of Sculpture until 1700 at the Museo Nacional del Prado, was deputy director of the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid. He specialises in the Spanish Renaissance, particularly Alonso Berruguete, Juan de Juni and Gaspar Becerra, the subject of his doctoral thesis. His publications include El marquesado de Astorga: arquitectura, coleccionismo y patronato (2005) and Alonso Berruguete. Prometeo de la escultura (2011). Arias Martínez has curated amongst other exhibitions Hand in Hand. Sculpture and Colour in the Spanish Golden Age (Museo del Prado, 2024).