Diego Velázquez

Known for: Las Meninas (1656); Spanish court painting

Diego Velázquez served as court painter to Philip IV of Spain and produced portraits of extraordinary psychological complexity alongside mythological subjects and genre scenes, developing a technique of loose, optical brushwork that anticipated Impressionism by two centuries. Las Meninas (1656) is among the most analyzed paintings in Western art, its perspectival game engaging with the representation of royal power and the status of the painter. Francis Bacon's pope paintings are direct responses to his Portrait of Innocent X.