Velazquez's Life And Accomplishments

Velazquez was born in Seville in Southern Spain in 1599. Velazquez was very talented even as a young man. He was well know for his paintings of tavern scenes. In these paintings Velazques placed implicit moral messages in a inconspicuous way. These paintings had old faces with young faces which was a moral message about the fragility of life and our dependence on God. Velazquez also painted a very realistic Madonna that some believe is a portrait of his wife. This painting of the Madonna goes against the typical Virgin Mary painting of the past. When Velazquez was 23, he move to Madrid where King Phillip the 4th asked him to do a self portrait of himself. He liked the painting so much that Velazquez became the official court painter for the
royal family. Velazques also painted a nude from the back which is extremely well done and realistic. His level of detail in the nude is very well done and he uses the mirror as almost another dimension for Venus to look at the audience look at her.