Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660) is a Spanish painter who is the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV.

He is an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist.

In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he paintis scores of portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656).

From the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Velázquez's artwork is to be a model for the realist and impressionist painters, in particular Édouard Manet.

Since that time, more modern artists, including Spain's Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, as well as the Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon, have paid tribute to Velázquez by recreating several of his most famous works.