Baroque Master painter Velázquez, celebrated as the "painter of painters" by Édouard Manet, inspired some of his greatest fellow artists – Goya, Picasso, Francis Bacon.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) was born in Seville. His precocious talent soon brought him to the attention of King Philipp IV, who made the twenty-four-year-old artist his court painter, a position Velázquez retained until the end of his life.

Producing official portraits of the king and his family was among the foremost duties of every court painter, but Velázquez extended this to include different members of the court, developing such a modern, psychologically perceptive view of his sitters that his compositions continue to fascinate all who see them.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is hosting the first-ever monograph exhibition in a German-speaking country dedicated to Diego Velázquez until February 15th, 2015. Comprising many of his seminal works, the exhibition offers a comprehensive survey of the Spanish court painter’s complex oeuvre.

As a result of the dynastic and political connections between the Habsburg rulers in Madrid and Vienna, the Kunsthistorisches Museum holds outstanding portraits by Velázquez, among them charming likenesses of the Spanish infantas. Images courtesy: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.