Velazquez

A comprehensive, illustrated portrait of Diego Velázquez s life and art examining all his major works. Diego Velázquez (1599 1660) was one of the towering figures of Western painting and baroque art, a technical master renowned for his focus on realism and startling veracity. Everything he painted was treated as a portrait, from Spanish royalty and Pope Innocent X to a mortar and pestle. In this comprehensive introduction to Velázquez s life and art by Richard Verdi, the artist s major works are discussed along with most of his surviving output of approximately 110 paintings. Velázquez s greatest innovation, his unorthodox and revolutionary technique, is explored in relation to his most-celebrated contemporaries both in Spain and beyond, including Titian and Peter Paul Rubens. Velázquez concludes with a final chapter on the influence and importance of Velázquez s art on later painters from the time of his death to the art of recent times, including Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, and the impressionists. 209 color illustrations