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 indepen t 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).
The Essay on Oil Paintings
The oil painting technique traces its roots all the way back to a time between the fifth and ninth century when it was first used in Western Afghanistan, yet it was made famous and the premier means of expression by the Renaissance movement in the 15th century by men like Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael (Davide 46). The reason the oil painting technique gained this newfound popularity was due in ...
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 wha 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 Menin as is hung over King Philp’s private office, a sure indication that it was special to him (The Book of Art 175).
