Diego Velzquez's Early Paintings and the Culture of Seventeenth-Century Seville

Diego Velzquez spent his formative years at the center of artistic life in seventeenth-century Seville, a gateway to the New World characterized by intellectual debate, religious fervor, and mounting ethnic tensions. Yet critics have often divorced the painters novel style and subject matter from the citys unique pictorial and cultural traditions. In Diego Velzquezs Early Paintings and the Culture of Seventeenth-Century Seville, Tanya J. Tiffany demonstrates that Velzquezs works not only engaged Sevilles social practices but also raised issues of vital importance to seventeenth-century Sevillians. As a young artist, Velzquez contended with such essential questions as womens place in society, the nature of artistic creativity, the role of religion in everyday life, and the incorporation of racial minorities into Christianity. This study offers close readings of individual paintings with regard to their historical framework, critical context, and early reception. Through this approach, Tiffany illuminates well-known masterpieces and also highlights the fluid boundaries between high art and popular forms of visual expression.