Velázquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y, also Velasquez

b. 1599; d. 1660

The greatest Spanish painter and one of the world's greatest artists in any medium. He was born in Seville, and from 1610 to 1616 he was apprenticed to Francisco Pacheco whose daughter he married in 1618. He became an independent master in 1617 and was very precocious. His earliest works display a powerful ability to suggest weight and volume through strong lighting and show the influence of Caravaggio and the woodcarver Martinez Montanez, but Velazquez's brushwork, producing a supple leathery effect, is his own. He was called to Madrid in 1623, and became court painter; before this he had painted mainly religious works and bodegones (interior scenes with a strong still-life element), but from then on he concentrated on portraits, mainly of the Royal family and members of the court. He remained at the court for the rest of his life apart from two visits to Italy in 1629-31 and 1649-51.

Throughout his career naturalism was the basis of Velázquez's art, but the means by which he expressed the way he saw the world continually grew in subtlety. His colour became cooler and his brushwork freer, and in his late works the brushstrokes appear meaningless when viewed closely, but at the right distance coalesce to form shapes and spaces rendered with astonishing convincingness of tone and atmosphere, reaching a peak in Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), 1656 (Prado, Madrid). With his technical development went an increasing psychological penetration, and whether he was painting the King of Spain, the most powerful man in the world, or the wretched court dwarfs, Velázquez approached his work with the same complete honesty, conviction, and respect for his sitter's humanity. His portrait of Pope Innocent X (Doria Pamphili Gallery, Rome) is perhaps his greatest achievement in portraiture and one of the world's supreme masterpieces of painting.

Apart from his portraits, Velázquez painted some noble religious and mythological works, two exquisite landscapes of the Medici Gardens in Rome (Prado), one of the most celebrated nudes, The Rokeby Venus (National Gallery, London), and one of the greatest of contemporary history paintings, the Surrender of Breda, 1634 (Prado). Velázquez's career was one of uninterrupted success, and there was little drama in his life. He never adopted easy formulae or mannerisms, and behind the seemingly effortless sparkling spontaneity of his work lies a powerful intellect which was able to resolve the individual problems of light, colour, composition and characterisation to form a synthesis in each work. His greatest paintings rise to almost unmatched heights in virtuosity of technique and depth of feeling, and although his work appeals instantly, it does not pall but constantly reveals new subtleties.

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