Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) was Spain's greatest painter in the baroque style and one of the most outstanding of the European artists of his century.

The paternal grandparents of Diego Velázquez came from Oporto, Portugal, but both his parents were born in Seville, as was he. The baptismal record, dated June 6, 1599, was signed by his father, Juan Rodríguiez de Silva, and his mother, Jerónima Velázquez. Both parents were said to be of the lesser nobility. Diego was the oldest of seven children.

At 11 years of age Diego was apprenticed to the painter Francisco de Herrera the Elder, whose ungovernable temper caused the boy to be reapprenticed on Sept. 17, 1611, to Francisco Pacheco. Pacheco taught him for 5 years and later became his father-in-law. Most of what we know of Velázquez comes from Pacheco's...