Diego velazquez biography and art

Seville

Velázquez was born in 1599 in Seville in southern Spain, at that time an important city with a thriving artistic community. At the age of eleven, Velázquez was apprenticed to Francisco Pacheco, Seville's most significant artist and art theorist.

From Pacheco, Velázquez learned the technical skills of drawing and painting, still-life and portraiture and soon surpassed his master. Unlike the more traditional Pacheco, he responded to the techniques of modern innovators such as Caravaggio.

(Caravaggio was famous for his dark, dramatically lit works and un-idealised models.

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Copies of his paintings spread all over Europe.)

In 1617, Velázquez finished his apprenticeship and was granted the right to set up his own studio. A year later, he married Pacheco's daughter Juana and by 1621, the couple had two daughters.

During his early years in Seville, Velázquez produced traditional religious works such as The Immaculate Conception or Saint John the Evangeli