Diego Velázquez

Spain

Diego Velázquez was the foremost Spanish painter of the Golden Age.

💡 Did you know? Van Gogh, Manet and Picasso revered him: Manet called Velázquez „the painter of painters.“

Baroque

Velázquez was a master of the Baroque, famous for his uncompromising realism.

💡 Did you know? He painted court dwarfs and jesters with the same dignity as kings: unusual for his time.

Philip IV (King of Spain)

He was court painter and confidant of the king.

💡 Did you know? Almost all his life Velázquez served at the court of King Philip IV, whom he portrayed again and again over decades.

Las Meninas

„Las Meninas“ shows the little Infanta, her ladies-in-waiting and Velázquez himself at the easel; the royal couple appears in the mirror.

💡 Did you know? Picasso repainted it in over fifty variations of his own.

free, loose brushwork

Painters like Manet saw in him a forerunner of modern art.

💡 Did you know? Up close Velázquez's pictures look like flung-down blotches: only from a distance do they cohere into astonishingly living reality.

1660

Velázquez died in 1660, shortly after arranging a royal wedding as a court official.

💡 Did you know? Only shortly before his death was Velázquez admitted to a noble order of knights: he painted its red cross onto his chest in „Las Meninas.“

Las Meninas

Around 1656: one of the most enigmatic pictures in art history.

💡 Did you know? The enigmatic picture plays so cleverly with gaze and mirror that philosophers and painters still puzzle over it.

The Surrender of Breda

Painted around 1634.

💡 Did you know? The victor magnanimously offers his hand to the vanquished; an unusually humane war picture.

Rokeby Venus

Painted around 1644.

💡 Did you know? Velázquez's only surviving female nude; in 1914 a suffragette slashed it in the London museum.

Las Hilanderas

Painted around 1655.

💡 Did you know? What looks like a workshop scene hides in the background an ancient myth of a contest with the gods.

Old Woman Cooking Eggs

Painted around 1618.

💡 Did you know? An early work from Seville: Velázquez painted the humble kitchen scene with almost tangible realism.

The Lunch

Painted around 1617.

💡 Did you know? An early „bodegón“: a plain tavern scene of the kind the young Velázquez loved.

Portrait of Innocent X

A famous, unsparingly honest portrait of a pope.

💡 Did you know? The pope is said to have murmured it was „too true“: Francis Bacon later painted disturbing variations of it.

The Triumph of Bacchus

Painted around 1628.

💡 Did you know? Velázquez shows the wine god among grinning, very earthly Spanish revellers.

Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan

Painted around 1630.

💡 Did you know? In the workshop scene the god Apollo brings the smith Vulcan the embarrassing news of Venus's infidelity.

Christ Crucified

Painted around 1632.

💡 Did you know? The calm, solitary Christ against a black ground is considered one of the most moving crucifixions ever painted.

The Waterseller of Seville

Painted around 1620.

💡 Did you know? An early masterpiece: the drops of water on the clay jug look real enough to touch.

The Farmers' Lunch

Painted around 1618.

💡 Did you know? An early „bodegón“ with ordinary people at a table: everyday life as a worthy subject.

Diego Velázquez

Diego Velázquez (1599 to 1660) was the foremost Spanish Baroque painter and court painter to Philip IV, famous for his uncompromising realism.

💡 Did you know? Later masters from Manet to Picasso revered Velázquez as the „painter of painters“: few ever rendered reality so vividly.