Antonio González Velázquez (1723–1793) was a Spanish late-

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

painter.

Biography

Velázquez was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

into a family of artists; his father

Pablo González Velázquez Pablo González Velázquez (1664–1727) was a Spanish Baroque sculptor. According to the art historian Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, who is the provider of all known biographical details, Velázquez was born in Jaén, Spain, Jaén and was th ...

and brothers

Alejandro Alejandro is the Spanish form of the name Alexander. Alejandro has multiple variations in different languages, including Aleksander (Czech, Polish), Alexandre ( French), Alexandros (Greek), Alsander (Irish), Alessandro (Italian), Aleksandr (Rus ...

and

Luis Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

were all painters. He received a scholarship to travel to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1747 from the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acad ...

where he was studying under

Corrado Giaquinto Corrado Giaquinto (8 February 1703 – 18 April 1766) was an Italian Rococo painter. Early training and move to Rome He was born in Molfetta. As a boy he apprenticed with a modest local painter Saverio Porta, (c1667–1725), escaping the rel ...

. The following year he made the frescoes in the church of Santa Trinita degli Spagnoli. In 1752 he returned to Spain and a year later helped to paint the walls of the church of the Monastery of the Incarnation of Madrid and the cupola of the chapel of the Basilica del Pilar de Zaragoza. His reputation grew to the point of being appointed court painter in 1757, in which he participated in the decoration of the

Royal Palace of Madrid The Royal Palace of Madrid ( es, Palacio Real de Madrid) is the official residence of the Spanish royal family at the city of Madrid, although now used only for state ceremonies. The palace has of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms. It is the ...

with allegorical painting on the ceiling of the antechamber of the Queen. Not long after, in 1765, Velázquez was promoted to the position of director of the Academy of San Fernando. He worked the rest of his life along with

Francisco Bayeu y Subías Francisco Bayeu y Subías (9 March 1734, Zaragoza – 4 August 1795, Madrid) was a Spanish painter in the Neoclassic style, whose main subjects were religious and historical themes. He is best known for his frescoes. His brothers Ramón and ...

and other painters in developing cartons for the

Royal Tapestry Factory The Royal Tapestry Factory (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Real Fábrica de Tapices de Santa Bárbara'') is a manufacturing plant located in Madrid, Spain, which was founded in 1720. History The factory was founded by Philip V of Spain, Philip V ...

under the direction of

Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (22 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German people, German painter, active in Dresden, Rome, and Madrid, who while painting in the Rococo period of the mid-18th century became one of the precursors to Neoclassicism, Neoclas ...

. His son Zacarías González Velázquez also went on to become a painter.

References

José de la Mano, ''Antonio González Velázquez''
* Cean Bermudez, John Augustine, Historical Dictionary of the most distinguished teachers of the Fine Arts in Spain, Madrid, 1800, vol. 2.
Scholarly articles
in English about Antonio González Velázquez both in web an
PDF
@ th
Spanish Old Masters Gallery

External links

1723 births 1793 deaths 18th-century Spanish painters 18th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters Spanish Baroque painters People from Madrid {{Spain-painter-stub