Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) -- a contemporary of Rembrandt and Rubens -- was a master of realism and one of the very greatest of portrait painters, distinguished by his great feeling for truth and his superb mastery of all aspects of painting. This baroque impressionist has given us portraits of the King and Queen, the royal children, the ministers and the beautiful women of the court, and of the court jesters with their strange malformations. A master of light and chiaroscuro and of the values of color, Velazquez possessed a style of extraordinary freedom, which gradually became bolder, broader and more flowing. The paintings and details reproduced in this volume have been specially selected and photographed to reveal the mastery of Spain's greatest painter. -- From publisher's description.