1599-1660,Spanish painter. He was apprenticed to Francisco Herrera the Elder before being trained by Francisco Pacheco. His early works were mostly religious or genre scenes. After arriving in Madrid in 1623, he painted a portrait of Philip IV that won him immediate success and an appointment as court painter. His position gave him access to the royal collections, including works by Titian, who exerted the greatest influence on his style. In his portraits from this period, only the faces and hands of the figures are accentuated, and the dark figures stand out against a light background. A visit to Italy (1629 ?C 31) further developed his style, and on his return to Madrid he entered his most productive period. Velazquez created a new type of informal royal portrait for Philip hunting lodge, and his portraits of court dwarfs display the same discerning eye as those of his royal subjects. On a second visit to Rome (1649 ?C 51) he painted a portrait of Pope Innocent X. The powerful head, brilliant combinations of crimson of the curtain, chair, and cope are painted with fluent technique and almost imperceptible brushstrokes that go far beyond the late manner of Titian and announce the last stage in Velazquez development. This portrait was copied innumerable times and won him immediate and lasting renown in Italy. In his last years he created his masterpiece, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour, 1656). In this casual scene, the artist is shown painting the king and queen in the presence of the infanta Margarita and her attendants; the nearly life size figures are painted in more or less detail according to their relation to the central figure of the infanta and to the source of light, creating a remarkable illusion of reality never surpassed by Velazquez or any other artist of his age. He is universally acknowledged as one of the giants of Western art.   Related Paintings of Velasquez :. | Awes Telia | Abbot and hermit Paulo | The spirit of Christ and supervision | St. John in Bai Temu Si | Omelette woman |
Related Artists:
Simon Hollosy
1857-1918 Hungarian Simon Hollosy Gallery Simon Hollosy (Romanian: Simion Corbu); (2 February 1857, Maramarossziget, now Sighetu Marmatiei - 8 May 1918, Tecso, now Tiachiv) was a Hungarian painter. He was considered one of the greatest Hungarian representatives of 19th century Naturalism and Realism. Holl??sy came from an Armenian family who settled in Maramarossziget (present-day Sighetu Marmaţiei, Romania). He frequently worked abroad. He criticized training at the Academy and founded a private school in 1886 where he gathered young talents around him who were interested in realistic protrayal. He opened the way to new styles by relying on his personality and by pointing out the merits of French pictures (Courbet) exhibited in Munich. He abandoned the academic style in order to follow new trends in French painting. Encouraged by Istvan Reti and Janos Thorma, his pupils and friends, he spent the summer of 1896 in Nagyb??nya (present-day Baia Mare, Romania) with his school, which played an important role in Hungarian painting as the cradle of the Nagybanya school. He soon settled down in Nagybanya. With its style (sunny landscapes), his school determined Hungarian painting for decades. Leaving the Nagyb??nya colony in 1901, he spent the summers in Tecso with his students from 1902. During winters he was in Munich to run his school there. He was not productive as an artist: he was in search of atmospheres and his productivity was confined to teaching. His large scale plan of "Rakoczi March" with a lot of figures got as far sketches because he kept on changing his mind. The landscapes painted in Tecso include "Landscape in T??cső", "Landscape with Stacks and Sunset with Stacks", where he applied elements of plein air and impressionism. His self-portrait (1916) is one of his most harrowing pictures.
BAUGIN, Lubin
French painter. He became a master in the painters' guild of Saint-Germain-des-Pr?s in 1629. From c. 1636 he was in Italy, but he is known to have been in Paris again in 1641; in 1645 he became a member of the Acad?mie de St Luc, and in 1651 he was also a member of the Acad?mie Royale after the temporary amalgamation of the two institutions. Like many of his generation he was deeply influenced by the art of the Fontainebleau school. The Mannerist tendency of his style
LAMA, Giulia
Italian painter, Venetian school (1681-1747).