Diego Velazquez: Baroque Art

Baroque art is a style of architecture and art originating in Italy in the early 17th century and variously prevalent in Europe and the New World for a century and a half. It was characterized by the free and sculptural use of the classical orders. Artists would implement the baroque style of art in their paintings in order to express concerns or symbolize ideas. A famous Spanish artist was Diego Velazquez. During the 1640s and 1650s, Velázquez served as both court painter and curator of Philip IV 's expanding collection of European art. Velazquez seemed to have been given a much larger degree of freedom in the role than others. He was even allowed to supervise the decoration and interior design of the rooms holding the most valued paintings.
Velazquez worked in the Baroque period. This was a period of time when the style of art was characterized by the following: great drama, rich, deep color, and intense light and dark shadows. This was very different compared to Renaissance art. He also used a painting technique called chiaroscuro. He had a very realistic approach to the human figure which was very new. The painting itself may be considered a self-portrait but Velazquez is not the center of the painting. Although the painting includes Velazquez’s self-portrait, he is not the central figure of the work. Since Velazquez isn’t in the center the person who was viewing the painting may have considered the work to be a portrait of La Infanta. This is because she is physically in the center of the painting and surrounded by the entire Royal Household. In the mirror one can see parts of the king and queen. The audience of this painting would have
Rather than showing off the suffering of the poor, Velazquez shows off what the kings could allow themselves. Not only could the royalty allow themselves to live in such wonderful palaces but they could also allow themselves clothing made out of extremely expensive materials and people to dress them up. The painting itself shows how nicely royalty was treated and how grand the king’s palace was. It could have also been used by Velazquez to demonstrate to Philip IV how he thought of him. The fact that the Monarchs are in the mirror but not in the painting itself gives them a sort of god-like presence. This could’ve been done to demonstrate Velazquez loyalty to the