Diego Velázquez was a notable Spanish artist who achieved notoriety and fame in the seventeenth century.
When Velázquez was just eighteen years of age, a significant milestone in his life occurred. After applying to the Painter’s Guild of St. Luke, he was accepted in 1617 and marked the beginning of his independent career as an artist. Between 1617 and 1822, Diego painted his first portraits and religious works. He also indulged in a common genre of the time known as bodegones.
Significant works from this period included Three Men at Table, Old Woman Frying Eggs and the The Waterseller in Seville, while the religious works Mother Jeronima de la Fuete and the Adoration of the Magi were considered his more significant works.
His last major work was a multiple portrait of the Spanish Royal Family, called Las Meninas. The Infant Margarita is the main figure, running into Diego’s studio and followed by a procession of attendants, while the images of the king and queen appear as reflections in a background mirror, where a painting by Rubens and one by Jordaens can also be seen. It is unique in its conception and execution. Diego Velázquez died in Madrid, in the palace where he spent so much of his time, in August 1660.