Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) has long occupied a distinctive position in the history of Western art, both for his outstanding achievements as a painter, and for being centuries ahead of his time. Renowned for his dazzling technical dexterity, Velázquez combines virtuosity and mystery. In the candor and sobriety of his portraits are the seeds of nineteenth-century realism, in the freedom and spontaneity of his brushwork those of Impressionism, while the optical concerns of his paintings already anticipate the advent of the camera. Richard Verdi's illuminating and comprehensive introduction to Velázquez's life and art explores the artist's development, from the remarkably accomplished works painted during his youth in his native Seville to the magnificent succession of canvases he executed as court painter to the Spanish royal family and during his travels in Italy. Throughout, Verdi emphasizes the originality of the artist's style and vision when compared with such illustrious contemporaries as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Frans Hals. This survey illustrates most of the artist's surviving works and concludes with an extended account of Velázquez's crucial importance for later painters, including Francisco Goya, Édouard Manet, and Pablo Picasso.