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Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was born in 1599 in the city of Seville, one of the most vibrant cities in Spain at the time, where his father, a native of Portugal, settled and where the...
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- History of Spain
Feb 21, 2014 · Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez baptised June 6, 1599 -- August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV and one of the most important...
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- art now
Nov 14, 2023 · Diego Velázquez was a Spanish Baroque painter who was one of the most important portrait painters of his time. He was born in Seville, Spain, in 1599. Because of his talent, he began an ...
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- Great Artists Explained
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- 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
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.
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.
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Nov 23, 2021 · What is the story behind Diego Velázquez’s paintings, and how did Diego Velázquez the painter become such a world-renowned name? Let us take a look at his life, from the early years and through his periods of development.
