Velázquez, who is considered, along with Goya and El Greco, to have been Spain's greatest baroque painter, was born in Seville, 1599, the oldest of six children; both his parents were of minor nobility.

The young Velázquez worked as an apprentice to Francisco Pacheco, a Sevillian Mannerist painter who was also the author of an important treatise, The Art of Painting, 1649, and who later, became Velázquez's father-in-law. During his student years Velázquez absorbed the most popular contemporaneous styles of painting, derived, in part, from both Flemish and Italian realism.

In 1622 Velázquez made his first trip to Madrid, ostensibly to see the royal painting collections, but more likely in an unsuccessful search for a position as the court painter. In 1623, however, he returned to the capital and, after executing a portrait of the king, was named official painter to Philip IV. The portrait was the first among many.

In 1628 Peter Paul Rubens came to the court at Madrid on a diplomatic mission. Among the few painters with whom he associated was Velázquez. Although the great Flemish master did not have a direct impact on the style of the younger painter, their conversations almost certainly inspired Velázquez to visit the art collections in Italy.

In August of 1629, Velázquez departed from Barcelona for Genoa and spent the next two years traveling in Italy, Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rome, returning to Spain from Naples in 1631. In the course of his journey he closely studied both the art of the Renaissance and contemporary painting.

During the last 20 years of his life, Velázquez's work as court official and architect of assumed prime importance. He was responsible for the decoration of many new rooms in the royal palaces.

In 1649 he again went to Italy, this time to buy works of art for the king's collection. During his year's stay in Rome he painted magnificent portraits of royality. He was admitted into Rome's Academy of Saint Luke.

Velázquez continued to serve Philip IV as painter, courtier, and faithful friend until the artist's death in Madrid, 1660. His work had a subtle impact a century later on his greatest successor, Francisco de Goya.