Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/519

In Castile. 439 Returning to real Spanish artists, we now come to Spain's greatest painter. 5. Velazquez and his Followers. Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez, who, according to the custom of his country, retained his mother's name, was born at Seville, and baptized there June 6, 1599. His two masters were Herrera el Yiejo and Francisco Pacheco. Velazquez must have seen, even at Seville, several paintings from Italy and Flanders ; he also saw there the works of Luis Tristan, of Toledo, whose taste he admired. It was then that he felt the necessity of going to Madrid to study the works of the masters of his art. Pacheco had then just given him the hand of his daughter, Dona Juana. He started for Madrid in the spring of 1622, when twenty- three years of age, and there studied hard in the rich col- lections of the palaces of Madrid and the Escorial. The next year he returned to that city. Pacheco accompanied his son-in-law in this second journey, feeling sure that glory and fortune awaited him at court. And, indeed,, his first pictures showed what he could do. Philip IV. ordered a portrait of himself, with which he was so delighted, that he immediately collected and caused to be destroyed all the portraits that had yet been taken of him, and he named Velazquez his private painter (jpintor de cdmara). To this title was added later those of usher of the chamber (ujier de cdmara) and of aposentador mayor. Besides this, Velazquez was admitted to intimacy with the king, and was counted all the remainder of his life among those courtiers who were called privados del rey. The following year Velazquez set out for Venice,, where