Diego velazquez biography paintings of angels and stars

Diego Rodriquez de Silva y Velazquez was born in Seville in At the time Seville was an immensely wealthy City and considered a chief port of the New World. It was also a major religious centre employing an army of painters to provide decoration and pictures for its monasteries and churches. At the age of six he was placed into an apprenticeship under Francisco Pacheco.

Pacheco was an intellectual and a vocal critic of the Spanish attitude that ranked painting as merely a craft. He took the attitude of the Italian painters that painting was a liberal art. As an apprentice of Pacheco, Velazquez lived and worked with Pacheco. By the age of 19 his gift for painting clearly shows how he had outstripped his master.

His wife and first born child are shown in The Adoration of the Magi, as Mary and the baby Jesus, painted in Velazquez was fascinated by the idiosyncrasies of the human face, and his extraordinary ability to see and capture any facial peculiarities in paint made him a brilliant portraitist. Those most significant in influencing his work, both past and present, included Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian and Raphael.

Diego velázquez wife

His own achievements would then inspire the likes of Manet and Picasso. On his preliminary visit to the Court of Madrid he painted Luis de Gongora, a poet. A year later in he painted a portrait of Juan de Fonesca. Impressed by his work, King Philip IV, had Valasquez come paint his portrait as soon as possible, and as a result it shows the sovereign looking out with an impassive gaze.

In the painting Velazquez does not shy away from painting the Kings full lips and his prominent chin.