Velasquez Essay, Research Paper
A master of technique, highly individual in style, Velasquez may have had a greater influence on European
art than any other painter (Compton’s 271-272). Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez painted the truth,
with what he saw in reality and nature. Velasquez’s life and painting were temedous inspiration for other
artists.
Velasquez was born and grow-up in Seville, Spain. In his early teens; his parent notice his extroadinary
talent in art. Velasquez’s parents weren’t rich but they managed to get him into Pacheco Academy in
1613, he was fourteen. Four years later he became an indepent master (Murray 426).
He worked on painting until in 1923 he became Count Painter for King Philip IV. He was a slow worker
with a deliberate technique without bravura, sober color rather low in tone, and used a plain background
for many of his portraits so that the figure stands out as a silhouette (Murray 427). During his midlife
Velasquez was inspired to travel to Rome, Venice, and Naples by his good friend Rubens; a famous artists
and Count Painter for a king too. His visits to other countries was to help him with him paintings and
perspective. Velasquez would paint more that two hundred painting before he got sick and died from a
fever, in 1660. He was almost finished with The Infanta Margarita; his son-in-law finished it for him.
One of the first painting Velasquez did was The Water Carrier of Seville. Which he did at the age of twenty,
already shows his genius; his powerful grasp of individual character and dignity invests this everyday scene
with solemn spirit of a ritual (Janson 237). This proves he was born with great talent. His next major
painting was Surrendre of Breda, painted in 1635 to 1639. This particular painting showed King Philip IV
victory over Breda. It was unique because Velasquez never saw what happened during the battle. Instead,
he read description and saw prints. He painted Surrender of Breda by visual perspective. Final, the Maids
of Honor showed
reality behind the scenes of a picture before it is painted. This was one of Diego Velasquez most famous
painting because of the reality Las Meninas is hung over King Philp’s private office, a sure indication that it
was special to him (The Book of Art 175).