Velázquez

The spanish painter Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, (1599-1660) was very successful in his period, he was one of the most important and famous artists at this time. He did his paintings in the baroque period. Most of his themes were kind of historical and cultural, he painted many portraits of the spanish royal family. His masterpiece was Las Meninas (1656). Another prove of the importance of Velázquez's art even today is the fact that Pablo Picasso, as a homage to Velazquez, in 1957 did 58 variations of Las Meninas in his typically cubistic style. In the beginnings of the nineteenth century Velázquez’paintings mainly were taken as a model from realistic and impressionistic painters, for example Edouard Manet. But also other modern painters were influenced by Velazquez, such as Pablo Picasso or Salvador Dali. One of his most important paintings is the portrait of Pope Innocent X in 1650. Many decades later, in 1950, the irish painter Francis Bacon did another portrait of Pope Innocent X, inspired by this amazing artist. So- in this sense, this extraordinary artist is still alive.