Diego Velázquez | Legacy

Diego Velázquez (Spanish Baroque Era painter, 1599-1660) is the most influential figure of the Spanish Golden Age.

Velázquez was not prolific; he is estimated to have produced between only 110 and 120 known canvases.

He produced no etchings or engravings, and only a few drawings are attributed to him.

Velázquez's artwork became a model for 19th century realist and impressionist painters.

Since then, famous modern artists, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Francis Bacon, have paid tribute to Velázquez by recreating several of his most famous works.

Velázquez was not prolific; he is estimated to have produced between 110 and 120 known canvases.

He produced no etchings or engravings, and only a few drawings are attributed to him.

Velázquez is the most influential figure in the history of Spanish portraiture.

Although he had few immediate followers, Spanish court painters such as his son-in-law Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo and Juan Carreño de Miranda took inspiration from his work.

Mazo closely mimicked his style and many paintings and copies by Mazo were formerly attributed to Velázquez.

Velázquez's reputation languished in the eighteenth century, when Spanish court portraiture was dominated by artists of foreign birth and training.

Towards the end of the century, his importance was increasingly recognized by intellectuals close to the Spanish court-an essay published In 1781 by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos said of Velázquez that "when he died, the glory of Painting in Spain died with him".

In 1778, Goya made a set of etchings after paintings by Velázquez, as part of a project by the Count of Floridablanca to produce prints of paintings in the Royal Collection.

Goya's free copies reveal a searching engagement with the older master's work, which remained a model for Goya for the rest of his career.

Velázquez's work was little known outside of Spain until the nineteenth century.

His paintings mostly escaped being stolen by the French marshals during the Peninsular War.

In 1828, Sir David Wilkie wrote from Madrid that he felt himself in the presence of a new power in art as he looked at the works of Velázquez, and at the same time found a wonderful affinity between this artist and the British school of portrait painters, especially Henry Raeburn.

He was struck by the modern impression pervading Velázquez's work in both landscape and portraiture.

Velázquez is often cited as a key influence on the art of Édouard Manet, who is often considered the bridge between realism and impressionism.

Calling Velázquez the "painter of painters", Manet admired the immediacy and vivid brushwork of Velázquez's work, and built upon Velázquez's motifs in his own art.

In the late nineteenth century, artists such as James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent were strongly influenced by Velázquez.

"Velázquez non fu costretto a scostarsi dalla natura, perché egli sapeva vedere il bello nella natura. Dipingeva con sicuri e ampi movimenti, e nelle sue opere la precisione è sempre accompagnata dalla facilità d'espressione. Le sue forme creano un ritmo meraviglioso. Una luce argentea percorre la sua opera. Vi è un tono violetto nel viso spagnolo". - Robert Henri

"È nello stesso tempo il tecnico più fecondo e l'esteta più pericoloso. Occorre studiarlo per imparare a dipingere bene: ma occorre dimenticarlo perché uno possa diventare un artista. Seppe restare un grande signore nell'arte che egli trascinava alla volgarità. È una specie di olandese, ma in grande, innalzato da una gravità tutta spagnola".- Émile Bernard