Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Seville, baptized on June 6, 15991 - Madrid, August 6, 1660), known as Diego Velázquez, was a Spanish baroque painter considered one of the greatest exponents of Spanish painting and master of universal painting. He spent his early years in Seville, where he developed a naturalistic style of tenebrist lighting , influenced by Caravaggio and his followers. At the age of 24 he moved to Madrid, where he was appointed painter to King Philip IV and four years later he was promoted to chamber painter, the most important position among court painters. In this work he devoted the rest of his life. His job consisted of painting portraits of the king and his family , as well as other paintings intended to decorate the royal mansions. His presence at court allowed him to study the royal collection of paintings which, together with the teachings of his first trip to Italy, where he learned about both ancient painting and what was done in his time, were determining influences in evolving a style of great luminosity, with quick and loose brush strokes. In his maturity, from 1631, he painted great works in this way such as The Surrender of Breda. In his last decade his style became more schematic and sketched, achieving an extraordinary mastery of light. This period opened with the Portrait of Pope Innocent X, painted on his second trip to Italy, and his last two masterpieces belong to it: Las meninas and Las hilanderas.

His catalog consists of about 120 or 130 works. Recognition as a universal painter came late, around 1850. He reached his greatest fame between 1880 and 1920, coinciding with the time of the French impressionist painters, for whom he was a reference. Manet was amazed by his work and called him "a painter's painter" and "the greatest painter who has ever existed." The fundamental part of his paintings that made up the royal collection is preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Starting with The Forge of Vulcano, painted in Italy, the preparation of the paintings changed and remained that way for the rest of his life. It was basically composed of white lead applied with a spatula, which formed a very luminous background, complemented by increasingly transparent brush strokes. In The Surrender of Breda and in the Equestrian Portrait of Baltasar Carlos, painted in the 1630s, this change was concluded. The use of light backgrounds and transparent layers of color to create great luminosity were common among Flemish and Italian painters , but Velázquez developed this technique to extremes never seen before.

This evolution occurred due to knowledge of the work of other artists, especially the royal collection and the paintings he studied in Italy. Also because of his direct relationship with other painters, such as Rubens on his visit to Madrid and those he met on his first trip to Italy. Velázquez, therefore, did not do like the other painters working in Spain, who painted by superimposing layers of color. He developed his own style of diluted brush strokes and quick, precise touches on details. These small details were very important in the composition. The evolution of his painting continued towards greater simplification and speed of execution. His technique, with the passage of time, became more precise and schematic. It was the result of an extensive process of internal maturation.

The color palette he used was very limited, using the same pigments throughout his life. What varied over time is the way of mixing and applying them.