Velázquez: su mundo y el nuestro

This book studies the life, work and significance of Velázquez through a broad variety of approaches and themes ranging from the first stage of his career and the problems of attribution posed by two pictures related to this period to the reception of his painting. Artists, critics, historians, writers, museum specialists and anonymous viewers parade through its pages to explain the place the Sevillian artist occupied in the imaginary of western culture. Velázquez devoted most of his efforts to court portraiture, which is analysed here from the point of view of the representational formulas he progressively adopted, always as a compromise between aesthetic challenges, ceremonial culture of the period, political ideals, tradition, and the expectations aroused by the depiction of the king and his entourage.