Velazquez

Diego Velazquez (b.1599-d.1660) is Spain's greatest painter and also one of the supreme artists of all time. He was born in Seville, Spain, but his father was of noble Portuguese descent. Between the ages of 11 and 16 he studied art with Mannerist painter Francisco Pacheco, whose daughter he married in 1618. After his marriage at the age of 19, Velasquez went to Madrid, where he became painter to King Philip IV. Until 1623, when he went to Madrid his work was Baroque in style, with heavy pigment and sharp contrasts that suited the tavern scenes and still lifes he painted. As court painter, however, he was principally a portraitist and his style changed entirely, becoming lighter, clearer, shallower in composition.

The artist made two visits to Italy. On his first, in 1629, he copied masterpieces in Venice and Rome. After the trip, Velazquez abandoned Classicism entirely and began to use silvery tones and a wider range of color, painting in a manner that was not to be equaled in atmosphere, dramatic composition, use of light, and optical effects until the nineteenth-century Impressionists. He returned to Italy 20 years later and bought many paintings by Titian, Tintoretto, and Paolo Veronese. During this trip he did a magnificent portrait of Pope Innocent X. Upon his return to Madrid, Velazquez was made a Knight of the Order of Santiago and appointed Grand Marshall of the Palace.

Except for these journeys Velasquez lived in Madrid as court painter. His paintings include landscapes, mythological and religious subjects, and scenes from common life, called genre pictures. Most of them, however, are portraits of court notables.

In 1660 Velasquez had charge of his last and greatest ceremony - the wedding of the Infanta Maria Theresa to Louis XIV of France. This was a most elaborate affair. Worn out from these labors, Velasquez contracted a fever from which he died on August 6.

A master of the art of painting, Velazquez handled composition, color, light and space to perfection and was masterful at painting historical scenes, still lifes, interiors, and portraits of noblemen or peasants. His influence extended to such artists as Goya, Courbet, Manet, Eakins, and the Impressionists, and is still being felt today.