I.

Introduction

Diego Velázquez (artist) (1599-1660), Spanish baroque artist (see Baroque Art and Architecture), who, with Francisco de Goya and El Greco, forms the great triumvirate of Spanish painting.

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was born in Seville, the oldest of six children. Both his parents were from the lesser nobility. Between 1611 and 1617 Velázquez worked as an apprentice to Francisco Pacheco, a Sevillian mannerist painter (see Mannerism) who was also the author of an important treatise, El arte de la pintura (The Art of Painting, 1649), and who became Velázquez's father-in-law. During his student years Velázquez absorbed the most popular contemporary styles of painting, derived, in part, from both Flemish and Italian realism.