Experts
claim that Spanish artist Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez,
was probably one of the greatest painters that ever lived.
He is considered to have influenced European art more than
any other painter and also left behind the largest amount
of art work.
Velazquez
was born in Seville, to a father of noble Portuguese descent.
As an adolescent, his mentor was Francisco Pacheco, who was
later to become his father-in-law. He married at the age of
19 and then moved to Madrid, where he was hired by the Court
of King Phillip to be the court painter. He was 24 when he
painted the monarch's portrait.
Except for a few
brief visits to Italy, he stayed in Madrid for the rest of
his life as court painter, being eventually promoted to court
curator. Most of his works involve portraits of members of
the royal court, although he also created paintings of landscapes,
religious, mythological and everyday subjects. His dedication
to the tasks entrusted to him at the Court wore him down a
great deal. As court curator he was responsible for arranging
festivities and other ceremonial affairs. He eventually took
ill and died of a fever.
A
realist painter, Velazquez is often referred to as "the painter
of the truth". Some of his many masterpieces, to name a few,
include Maria Teresa of Span ("with two watches") ,
The Dwarf Sebastian de Morra and Los Borrachos
(The Feast of Bacchus).
