The Rokeby Venus Poster Print by Diego Velazquez (24 x 18)

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In 1855, William Stirling wrote in Velázquez and his works: "Velázquez seems to have anticipated the discovery of Daguerre and, taking a real room and real people grouped together by chance, to have fixed them, as it were, by magic, for all time, on canvas". [1]

In 17th-century Spain, painters rarely enjoyed high social status. Painting was regarded as a craft, not an art such as poetry or music. [7] Nonetheless, Velázquez worked his way up through the ranks of the court of PhilipIV, and in February 1651 was appointed palace chamberlain ( aposentador mayor del palacio). The post brought him status and material reward, but its duties made heavy demands on his time. During the remaining eight years of his life, he painted only a few works, mostly portraits of the royal family. [8] When he painted Las Meninas, he had been with the royal household for 33 years. Had it not been for his royal appointment, which enabled Velázquez to escape the censorship of the Inquisition, he would not have been able to release his La Venus del espejo (c. 1644–1648, English: Venus at her Mirror) also known as The Rokeby Venus. It is the first known female nude painted by a Spanish artist, [18] and the only surviving female nude by Velázquez. Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish:[ˈdjeɣo roˈðɾiɣeθ ðe ˈsilβa i βeˈlaθkeθ]; baptized on June 6, 1599– August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV, and one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he painted scores of portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656).It is canonical to divide Velázquez's career by his two visits to Italy. He rarely signed his pictures, and the royal archives give the dates of only his most important works. Internal evidence and history pertaining to his portraits supply the rest to a certain extent. Besides the many portraits of Philip by Velázquez—thirty-four by one count [47]—he painted portraits of other members of the royal family: Philip's first wife, Elisabeth of Bourbon, and her children, especially her eldest son, Don Baltasar Carlos, whom Velázquez first depicted at about two years of age. Cavaliers, soldiers, churchmen, and the poet Francisco de Quevedo (now at Apsley House), sat for Velázquez. Juana and Diego Velazquez Marriage Profile". Marriage.about.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-25 . Retrieved December 22, 2010. Domínguez Ortiz, A.; Gállego, J. & Pérez Sánchez, A.E. (1989). Velázquez . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780810939066.

Velázquez was educated by his parents to fear God and, intended for a learned profession, received good training in languages and philosophy. Influenced by many artists, he showed an early gift for art; consequently, he began to study under Francisco de Herrera, a vigorous painter who disregarded the Italian influence of the early Seville school. Velázquez remained with him for one year. It was probably from Herrera that he learned to use brushes with long bristles. Alpers, Svetlana (2005). The Vexations of art: Velázquez and others. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10825-5.Velázquez was not just successful as a painter. From his arrival he had continued to rise up the ranks in the royal household. In 1636 he was made Assistant to the Wardrobe - a position of trust and responsibility. Wolf, Norbert (1998) Diego Velázquez, 1599–1660: the face of Spain Taschen, Köln. ISBN 3-8228-6511-7. In recent years, the picture has suffered a loss of texture and hue. Due to exposure to pollution and crowds of visitors, the once-vivid contrasts between blue and white pigments in the costumes of the meninas have faded. [e] It was last cleaned in 1984 under the supervision of the American conservator John Brealey, to remove a "yellow veil" of dust that had gathered since the previous restoration in the 19th century. The cleaning provoked, according to the art historian Federico Zeri, "furious protests, not because the picture had been damaged in any way, but because it looked different". [18] [19] However, in the opinion of López-Rey, the "restoration was impeccable". [17] Due to its size, importance, and value, the painting is not lent out for exhibition. [f] Painting materials [ edit ] a b Dambe, Sira (December 2006). "Enslaved sovereign: aesthetics of power in Foucault, Velázquez and Ovid". Journal of Literary Studies. 22 (3–4): 229–256. doi: 10.1080/02564710608530402. S2CID 143516350. Archived from the original on 24 March 2021 . Retrieved 17 March 2021.

Velázquez's paintings of Aesop and Menippus (both c. 1636–1638) portray ancient writers in the guise of portraits of beggars. [18] Mars Resting (c. 1638) is both a depiction of a mythological figure and a portrait of a weary-looking, middle-aged man posing as Mars. [45] The model is painted with attention to his individuality, while his unkempt, oversized mustache is a faintly comic incongruity. [46] The equivocal image has been interpreted in various ways: Javier Portús describes it as a "reflection on reality, representation, and the artistic vision", while Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez says it "has also been seen as a melancholy meditation on the arms of Spain in decline". [18] Erenkrantz, Justin R. " The Variations on Past Masters". The Mask and the Mirror. Accessed on April 10, 2005. Salort-Pons, Salvador, "Velázquez en Italia", Fundación de Apoyo a la História del Arte Hispanico, Madrid 2002. ISBN 84-932891-1-6 Además todos los productos de aseo para los clientes han sido cambiados por productos en mono dosis.Portraiture [ edit ] Lady from court, c. 1635 Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid, 1635, a court fool of Philip IV Passuth, László: Más perenne que el bronce – Velázquez y la corte de Felipe IV (Título original: A harmadik udvarmester) / Noguer y Caralt Editores, 2000. However, the focal point of the painting is widely debated. Leo Steinberg argues that the orthogonals in the work are intentionally disguised so that the picture's focal center shifts. Similar to Lopez-Rey, he describes three foci. The man in the doorway, however, is the vanishing point. More specifically, the crook of his arm is where the orthogonals of the windows and lights of the ceiling meet. [45] The painted surface is divided into quarters horizontally and sevenths vertically; this grid is used to organise the elaborate grouping of characters, and was a common device at the time. [43] Velázquez presents nine figures—eleven if the king and queen's reflected images are included—yet they occupy only the lower half of the canvas. [44]

Yale uncovers Velazquez in basement storage". CBC News. July 3, 2010. Archived from the original on July 6, 2010 . Retrieved December 22, 2010. Velázquez". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5thed.). HarperCollins . Retrieved 18 October 2019. The manumission document was discovered by Jennifer Montagu. See Burlington Magazine, volume 125, 1983, pp. 683–4.The move to the royal court in Madrid allowed Velázquez access to the impressive royal collection. Velázquez studied the Italian paintings, particularly those by Venetian artists such as Titian. When Rubens arrived in Madrid on a diplomatic mission in 1628, the two artists became well acquainted. In 1629, Velázquez obtained permission to visit Italy himself and study Italian painting. He also sought out new paintings to buy on behalf of the King. On April 23, 1618, Velázquez married Juana Pacheco (June 1, 1602–August 10, 1660), the daughter of his teacher. They had two daughters. The elder, Francisca de Silva Velázquez y Pacheco (1619–1658), married painter Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo at the Church of Santiago in Madrid on August 21, 1633. The younger, Ignacia de Silva Velázquez y Pacheco, born in 1621, died in infancy. [15]