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Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, the most admired—perhaps the greatest—European painter who ever lived, possessed a miraculous gift for conveying a sense of truth.
- The Supper at Emmaus
Velázquez. Barcelona, 2007, p. 23, fig. 16 (color), dates it...
- Cristobal Balenciaga
He was respected throughout the fashion world for both his...
- Philip IV
Exh. cat.Madrid, 2005, pp. 211–14, fig. 12.10, considers the...
- Still-Life Painting in Southern Europe, 1600–1800
In 1601, he demonstrated this in The Supper at Emmaus...
- The Ashcan School
Although the Ashcan artists were not an organized “school”...
- Venice in The Eighteenth Century
Painters in Eighteenth-Century Venice La Serenissima, the...
- The Supper at Emmaus
- Overview
- Sevilla (Seville)
Diego Velázquez was one of the most important Spanish painters of the 17th century, a giant of Western art. He had a keen eye and a prodigious facility with the brush. His works often show strong modeling and sharp contrasts of light, resembling the dramatic lighting technique called tenebrism.
What is Diego Velázquez famous for?
As Philip IV’s court painter, Diego Velázquez painted many royal portraits, notably Las meninas (1656). Yet he was also known for popularizing the bodegón, or kitchen scene, in such early works as An Old Woman Cooking Eggs (1618). Other famous pieces include his portraits of Pope Innocent X (c. 1650) and Juan de Pareja (1650).
What was Diego Velázquez’s family like?
Diego Velázquez was the eldest child of João Rodrigues da Silva, a lawyer, and Jerónima Velázquez. Toward the end of his apprenticeship with Francisco Pacheco, Velázquez married his master’s daughter, Juana. They had two daughters.
How was Diego Velázquez educated?
According to Palomino, Velázquez’s first master was the Sevillian painter Francisco Herrera the Elder. In 1611 Velázquez was formally apprenticed to Francisco Pacheco, whose daughter he married in 1618. “After five years of education and training,” Pacheco writes, “I married him to my daughter, moved by his virtue, integrity, and good parts and by the expectations of his disposition and great talent.” Although Pacheco was himself a mediocre Mannerist painter, it was through his teaching that Velázquez developed his early naturalistic style. “He worked from life,” writes Pacheco, “making numerous studies of his model in various poses and thereby he gained certainty in his portraiture.” He was not more than 20 when he painted the Waterseller of Seville (c. 1620), in which the control of the composition, colour, and light, the naturalness of the figures and their poses, and realistic still life already reveal his keen eye and prodigious facility with the brush. The strong modeling and sharp contrasts of light and shade of Velázquez’s early illusionistic style closely resemble the technique of dramatic lighting called tenebrism, which was one of the innovations of the Italian painter Caravaggio. Velázquez’s early subjects were mostly religious or genre (scenes of daily life). He popularized a new type of composition in Spanish painting, the bodegón, a kitchen scene with prominent still life, such as An Old Woman Cooking Eggs (1618). Sometimes the bodegones have religious scenes in the background, as in Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (c. 1618). The Adoration of the Magi (1619) is one of the few Sevillian paintings of Velázquez that have remained in Spain.
Britannica Quiz
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, Knight of the Order of Santiago (baptized 6 June 1599 – 6 August 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of the Baroque period (c. 1600–1750).
Apr 2, 2014 · Diego Velázquez was a 17th-century Spanish painter who produced "Las Meninas" and many renowned portraits as a member of King Philip IV's royal court.
From his earliest works, such as The Waterseller of Seville, to his last portraits of the royal children, Velázquez demonstrates both truth to objective reality and poignant compassion. All of Velázquez's meditations—on the nature of power, on mortality, on human beauty and frailty—are rendered with incomparable painterly skill.
Diego Velázquez was originally from the southern Spanish city of Seville. Though he began his career painting genre scenes (images of everyday life) that were often redolent with religious undertones, in 1623 he was ordered to paint a portrait of King Philip IV.
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He painted noblemen and commoners, landscapes and still lifes, scenes from the Bible and classical mythology, court jesters and dwarfs, a young princess in formal dress, an old woman cooking...
