Spanish painter Diego Velazquez. London exhibition

By Tim Sanders:

Velazquez: painting the life of the Spanish empire

Diego Velazquez is considered Spain’s greatest painter, “the painters’ painter” as Edouard Manet described him, and his influence on subsequent artists is beyond doubt.

Painters as different as Francisco Goya, Salvador Dali, Francis Bacon and Pablo Picasso have paid homage to him and painted their own versions of his masterpieces.

The current exhibition at the National Gallery in London is the most comprehensive ever staged, and offers a stunning insight into the artist and his world.

Velazquez was born in 1599 to a wealthy family with claims to the minor nobility in the then fabulously wealthy city of Seville.

As well as being the provincial capital of Andalusia, Seville was at the centre of the silver trade from the richest of Spain’s American colonies.

Strike at National Gallery: here.

“Portrait of a Man” by Velázquez restored: here.

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