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 :. | Christ on the Cross | The spirit of Christ and supervision | Abbot and hermit Paulo | Pope Innocent X | Vulcan s smelter |
Related Artists:
Berthe Morisot
French 1841-1895 Berthe Morisot Galleries Berthe Morisot (January 14, 1841 ?C March 2, 1895) was a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. Undervalued for over a century, possibly because she was a woman, she is now considered among the first league of Impressionist painters. In 1864, she exhibited for the first time in the highly esteemed Salon de Paris. Sponsored by the government, and judged by academicians, the Salon was the official, annual exhibition of the Acad??mie des beaux-arts in Paris. Her work was selected for exhibition in six subsequent Salons until, in 1874, she joined the "rejected" Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions, which included Paul C??zanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. It was held at the studio of the photographer Nadar. She became the sister-in-law of her friend and colleague, Édouard Manet, when she married his brother, Eugene.
Carlo Ceresa
Carlo Ceresa (January 20, 1609 - January 29, 1679) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period active mainly around Bergamo. His early life and training are poorly recorded. He likely trained in Bergamo. He visited Venice, yet esconced himself in the small town of San Giovanni Bianco in Val Bembrana. Mostly recalled for his portraiture, Ceresa also painted altarpieces and religious works in an understated fashion.
BRAMANTINO
Italian High Renaissance Painter, ca.1460-1530 Leonaert/Leonard Bramer alias Nestelghat (Dec 24, 1596, Delft - buried Feb 10, 1674, Delft) was a Dutch painter, best known for probably being one of the teachers of Johannes Vermeer, although there is no similarity between their work. Bramer's dark and exotic style is unlike Vermeer's style. Bramer was primarily a genre and history painter, but also made some unique frescos, not very often found north of the Alps. Leonaert Bramer is one of the most intriguing personalities in seventeenth-century Dutch art. He was a talented and diligent draughtsman, evidently Catholic and a life long bachelor.