Art Guide · Painters
Diego Velázquez
1599–1660
Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) was court painter to King Philip IV of Spain and one of the greatest masters of Baroque painting. Las Meninas is one of the most studied works in the history of art.
Last updated: · Iconica Society editors
Life
Baptised in Seville in 1599, he trained in the workshop of Francisco Pacheco, who later became his father-in-law. In 1623 he became court painter to Philip IV in Madrid, a post he held for the rest of his life. He travelled to Italy twice; his Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650), painted in Rome, was greatly admired.
Style and key works
Velázquez developed a way of painting that looks like loose brushstrokes up close but reads as reality itself from a distance. Las Meninas (1656, Prado) shows the young Infanta Margarita and her maids of honour, the painter himself at his easel, and the king and queen reflected in a mirror at the back. Manet called him “the painter of painters”; in 1957 Picasso made 58 variations on the painting.
Key works
Shop Diego Velázquez posters →Frequently asked questions
Who is in Las Meninas?
The Infanta Margarita, her maids of honour, court dwarfs, a dog, Velázquez at his easel and, in the mirror at the back, King Philip IV and Queen Mariana.
Where is Las Meninas?
In the Prado Museum in Madrid.