Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y

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Spanish painter. One of the outstanding artists of the 17th century, he was court painter to Philip IV in Madrid, where he produced many portraits of the royal family as well as occasional religious paintings, genre scenes, and other works. Notable among his portraits is Las Meninas/The Maids of Honour (1656; Prado, Madrid), while Women Frying Eggs (1618; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh) is a typical genre scene.

Throughout his career realism was the basis of Velázquez's art, but the means by which he expressed the way he saw the world grew increasingly subtle. His colour became cooler and his brushwork freer, and in his late works the brushstrokes appear meaningless when viewed closely, but at the right distance coalesce to form shapes and spaces rendered with an astonishingly convincing tone and atmosphere, culminating in Las Meninas.

With his technical development went an increasing psychological penetration, and whether he was painting the king of Spain, then the most powerful man in the world, or the court dwarfs, Velázquez approached his work with the same complete honesty, conviction, and respect for the humanity of his sitters. His portrait of Pope Innocent X 1650 (Doria Pamphili Gallery, Rome) is among his most important achievements in portraiture.

Among his other major works are The Surrender of Breda 1634–35 (Prado), one of the greatest contemporary history paintings; The Rokeby Venus about 1648 (National Gallery, London), the first Spanish nude; and the portraits Philip IV (National Gallery, London) and Juan de Pareja 1650 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

The stars are said to represent Syria and Iraq. Red, white, black, and green are the pan-Arab colours. Effective date: 29 March 1980. >>