Art

Diego Velázquez

1599–1660 · Spanish

Baroque (Spanish Golden Age)

Diego Velázquez was the leading painter of the Spanish Golden Age and court painter to King Philip IV in Madrid for nearly four decades. Beginning with earthy kitchen scenes in Seville, he developed a loose, astonishingly naturalistic brushwork that later inspired Manet and the Impressionists. Las Meninas is regularly called one of the greatest paintings ever made.

How to spot them

▸Cool, silvery-grey palette and loose, suggestive brushstrokes that resolve into detail from a distance
▸Royal portraits of the Habsburg court: Philip IV, the Infanta Margarita, dwarfs and jesters
▸Early Seville bodegones: kitchen scenes with glinting jugs, eggs and weathered faces
▸Quiz clue pattern: Philip IV, Seville, the Prado, a mirror reflection, Francis Bacon's screaming popes

Key works

Las Meninas (1656)

Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Infanta Margarita with her maids of honour; Velázquez paints at his easel and the king and queen appear in a mirror

Image: Diego Velázquez · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Rokeby Venus (1647–1651)

National Gallery, London

His only surviving female nude; Venus gazes into a mirror held by Cupid — slashed by suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914

Image: Diego Velázquez · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

The Surrender of Breda (1634–1635)

Museo del Prado, Madrid

Also called Las Lanzas for the forest of lances; the Dutch commander hands the keys of Breda to Spinola

Image: Diego Velázquez · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Portrait of Innocent X (c. 1650)

Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome

Uncompromising papal portrait that inspired Francis Bacon's 'screaming pope' series

Image: Diego Velázquez · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Old Woman Frying Eggs (1618)

Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Seville-period bodegón, painted when he was about 19

Image: Diego Velázquez · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

The Waterseller of Seville (c. 1620)

Apsley House, London

Captured by Wellington from Joseph Bonaparte's baggage after the Battle of Vitoria (1813)

Image: Diego Velázquez · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Quick-fire facts

•He was born in Seville and trained under Francisco Pacheco, whose daughter Juana he married.
•He became court painter to Philip IV in 1623 and served him until his death in 1660.
•In Las Meninas he wears the red cross of the Order of Santiago, a knighthood he received only in 1659 — it was added after the painting was completed.
•Manet called him "the painter of painters".
•His portrait of his assistant Juan de Pareja (1650) sold in 1970 for a then-record price and is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
•He made two trips to Italy, the second (1649–1651) when he painted Innocent X.
•Picasso painted 58 variations on Las Meninas in 1957, now in the Museu Picasso, Barcelona.

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Sources

Encyclopaedia Britannica — Diego Velázquez
Museo Nacional del Prado — Las Meninas (collection entry)
National Gallery, London — The Toilet of Venus ('The Rokeby Venus') (collection entry)