Editing Diego Velázquez (section)

==To Madrid (early period)==
[[File:Felipe IV de castaño y plata, by Diego Velázquez.jpg|thumb|upright|left|''[[Philip IV in Brown and Silver]]'', 1632]]
Velázquez had established his reputation in Seville by the early 1620s. He traveled to Madrid in April 1622, with letters of introduction to Don Juan de Fonseca, chaplain to the King. Velázquez was not allowed to paint the new king, [[Philip IV of Spain|Philip&nbsp;IV]], but portrayed the poet [[Luis de Góngora]] at the request of Pacheco.<ref name="Carr_245">Carr et al. 2006, p. 245.</ref> The portrait showed Góngora crowned with a laurel wreath, which Velázquez later painted over.<ref>Carr et al. 2006, p. 144.</ref> He returned to Seville in January 1623 and remained there until August.<ref>Carr et al. 2006, pp. 29, 245.</ref>

In December 1622, [[Rodrigo de Villandrando (painter)|Rodrigo de Villandrando]], the king's favorite court painter, died.<ref>Harris 1982,  p. 57.</ref> Velázquez received a command to come to the court from [[Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares]], the powerful minister of Philip{{nbsp}}IV. He was offered 50 [[ducat]]s (175&nbsp;g of gold) to defray his expenses, and he was accompanied by his father-in-law. Fonseca lodged the young painter in his home and sat for a portrait, which, when completed, was conveyed to the royal palace.<ref name="Carr_245"/> A portrait of the king was commissioned, and on 30 August 1623, Philip{{nbsp}}IV sat for Velázquez.<ref name="Carr_245"/> The portrait pleased the king, and Olivares commanded Velázquez to move to Madrid, promising that no other painter would ever paint Philip's portrait and all other portraits of the king would be withdrawn from circulation.<ref>Harris 1982,  pp. 12, 200.</ref>  In the following year, 1624, he received 300 ducats from the king to pay the cost of moving his family to Madrid, which became his home for the remainder of his life.
[[File:Velázquez - El Triunfo de Baco o Los Borrachos (Museo del Prado, 1628-29).jpg|thumb|''[[The Triumph of Bacchus|El Triunfo de Baco]]'' or ''Los Borrachos'' 1629 (English: ''The Triumph of Bacchus/The Drunks'')]]

[[File:Diego Velázquez 030.jpg|thumb|''Portrait of the Infanta [[Maria Theresa of Spain|Maria Theresa]]'', Philip IV's daughter with [[Elisabeth of France (1602–1644)|Elisabeth of France]]]]
Velázquez secured admission to the royal service with a salary of 20 ducats per month, lodgings and payment for the pictures he might paint. His portrait of Philip was exhibited on the steps of San Felipe and received with enthusiasm. It is now lost (as is the portrait of Fonseca).<ref name="Harris_12">Harris 1982,  p. 12.</ref> The [[Museo del Prado]], however, has two of Velázquez's portraits of the king (nos. 1070 and 1071) in which the severity of the Seville period has disappeared and the tones are more delicate. The modeling is firm, recalling that of [[Antonio Mor]], the Dutch portrait painter of [[Philip II of Spain|Philip&nbsp;II]], who exercised a considerable influence on the Spanish school.  Velázquez depicts Philip wearing the ''[[golilla]]'' ([[:es:golilla|es]]), a stiff linen collar projecting at right angles from the neck. The ''golilla'' replaced the earlier court fashion of elaborate ruffed collars as part of Philip's dress reform laws during a period of economic crisis.<ref>Harris 1982,  p. 61.</ref>

The Prince of Wales (afterwards [[Charles I of England|Charles&nbsp;I]]) arrived at the court of Spain in 1623. Records indicate that he sat for Velázquez, but the picture is now lost.<ref name="Harris_12"/>

In 1627, Philip set a competition for the best painters of Spain with the subject to be the expulsion of the [[Moors]]. Velázquez won, with a painting (destroyed in a fire at the palace in 1734)<ref>Carr et al. 2006, p. 31.</ref> which records say depicted [[Philip III of Spain|Philip&nbsp;III]] pointing with his baton to a crowd of men and women being led away by soldiers, while the [[Allegory of Hispania|female personification of Spain]] sits in calm repose. Velázquez was appointed gentleman usher as reward. Later he also received a daily allowance of 12 [[Spanish real|réis]], the same amount allotted to the court barbers, and 90 ducats a year for dress.

In September 1628, [[Peter Paul Rubens]] was positioned in Madrid as an emissary from the Infanta Isabella, and Velázquez accompanied him to view the [[Titian]]s at the [[Escorial]]. Rubens, who demonstrated his brilliance as painter and courtier during the seven months of the diplomatic mission, had a high opinion of Velázquez but had no significant influence on his painting. He did, however, galvanize Velázquez's desire to see Italy and the works of the great Italian masters.<ref>Ortega y Gasset 1953, p. 37.</ref>

In 1629, Velázquez received 100 ducats for the picture of [[Dionysus|Bacchus]] (''[[The Triumph of Bacchus]]''), also called ''Los Borrachos'' (The Drunks), a painting of a group of men in contemporary dress paying homage to a half-naked ivy-crowned young man seated on a wine barrel. Velázquez's first mythological painting,<ref>Carr et al. 2006, p. 32.</ref> it has been interpreted variously as a depiction of a theatrical performance, as a parody, or as a symbolic representation of peasants asking the god of wine to give them relief from their sorrows.<ref>Harris 1982,  p. 74.</ref> The style shows the naturalism of Velázquez's early works slightly touched by the influence of Titian and Rubens.<ref>Harris 1982,  p. 73.</ref>