DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ
(June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter who was the leading
artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the
contemporary baroque period, important as a portrait artist. In addition to numerous
renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he painted scores
of portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and
commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656).
From the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Velázquez's artwork was a model for the realist and impressionist painters, in particular Édouard Manet. Since that time, more modern artists, including Spain's Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, as well as the Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon, have paid tribute to Velázquez by recreating several of his most famous works.
The child in the works of Velázques:
Velázquez, La Infanta Margarita,1656
Velázquez, Las Meninas (detail), 1656
Velázquez, Las Meninas (detail), 1656
Velázquez, La Reina Mariana de Austria, 1655-56
Velázquez, Las Meninas o la Familia de Felipe IV (detail), 1656