Mini biografias – Velázquez

Description

Diego de Silva y Velázquez (Seville, 1599–Madrid, 1660) is considered by many to be the most important painter who ever lived. He cultivated all genres with incredible ease: still lifes, mythology, landscapes, religious painting, nudes; but it was in the art of portraiture that he achieved unsurpassed mastery. Painter to the Crown and friend of King Philip IV from the age of 24, Velázquez was a calm, discreet, family-oriented man, far removed from the extravagances so common among geniuses. He left for posterity the greatest work ever painted: Las Meninas. With his work, he dignified the profession of painter, which had been barely valued socially until he arrived and astonished the world.