1623 · Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London

Velázquez made much use of Caravaggesque chiaroscuro in his early pictures. However, he turned the Italian artist's almost aggressive realism into a sharpness of perception that is softened by such picturesque devices as strangely new colours, always in earthy hues, and by his equating of objects and humans in a manner suggesting the experiences of dreams. A particularly fine example of this approach is Velázquez' first real masterpiece, the Waterseller.Show more