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Diego Vel¨¢zquez
(1599-1660)
Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Vel¨¢zquez was born in 1599 in Seville, the first child of Juan Rodriguez de Silva and Jeronima Vel¨¢zquez, members of the lesser nobility. Almost nothing is known about Diego¡¯s siblings ¨C five brothers and a sister. Vel¨¢zquez seems to have started his apprenticeship with Francisco de Herrera the Elder (c.1590-1654), but a short while later (in 1611) his father put him with Francisco Pacheco (1564-1644), who was an artist of modest talent, but a tolerant teacher and a man of society. Francisco Pacheco had good contacts in the royal court and besides, intellectuals of the city, poets, scholars, and artists, liked to meet at his workshop to discuss the subjects of classical antiquity, Raphael, Michelangelo and above all Titian, as well as the theory of art. At this time, Velazquez became familiar with the school of Caravaggio.
In 1617, Vel¨¢zquez was accepted into the painters¡¯ guild of St. Luke in Seville. Membership in this guild was necessary before he could start his own workshop, employ assistants, and receive commissions from churches and public institutions. The same year Vel¨¢zquez married Juana, daughter of his teacher Pacheco. Within less than three years they had two daughters, of whom only one, Francisca, survived. The paintings executed by Vel¨¢zquez in Seville before 1622 include bodegones (very popular genre of kitchen or tavern scenes, in which food and drink plays the main part) and his first portraits and religious compositions: Old Woman Frying Eggs, Three Men at Table, The Waterseller in Seville, Mother Jer¨®nima de la Fuente, The Adoration of the Magi. In The Adoration of the Magi the main characters are thought to be portraits: the young king is a self-portrait of the artist, the kneeling king behind him ¨C Pacheco, and Baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary ¨C Pacheco¡¯s daughter and Vel¨¢zquez¡¯ wife, Juana.
In 1622, Vel¨¢zquez visited Madrid for the first time to see its art treasures, and to make useful contacts; then he went to Toledo to see works by El Greco and other painters of that city, including Pedro de Orrente (1580-1645) and Juan Sanchez Cotan (1561-1627). In the spring of 1623, Vel¨¢zquez was summoned to court by the powerful Prime Minister, Count-Duke of Olivares, and received his first commission for a portrait of Philip IV. The success of this picture brought the artist an appointment as court painter and the privilege of becoming the only artist permitted to paint the king in the future. In 1628, Peter Paul Rubens came to the court in Madrid on diplomatic business. Vel¨¢zquez often visited him at work. Actually he was the only Spanish painter to be honored with these personal conversations. It was Rubens who persuaded Vel¨¢zquez to go to Italy.
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