17C Princesses at the Spanish court Dressed like their Mothers by Velazquez 1599–1660

1653 Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (Spanish painter, 1599-1660) Infanta Margarita.

Diego Velázquez Recorded a nuanced, even anxious, royal view of childhood in his paintings in Spain of the princesses, children dressed as adultss

1654 Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (Spanish painter, 1599-1660) Infanta Margarita.

1656 Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (Spanish painter, 1599-1660) Infanta Margarita.

1659 Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (Spanish painter, 1599-1660) Infanta Margarita in a Blue Dress.

1650 Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish painter, from 1599 to 1660) The Infanta Margarita (Perhaps finished by Mazo Detail

1656 Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (Spanish painter, 1599-1660) Las Meninas or The Maids of Honor. Detail In Las Meninas, the 5-year-old Infanta Margarita Teresa stands looking at us, Accompanied by her ladies in waiting (meninas) & amp; 2 dwarves, while works were Velázquez portrait of her parents, the King & amp; queen. The Infanta looks out of the painting at her relatives (who are standing where the spectator of the painting stands) she is performing. And she is under pressure to look & amp; act like an adult princess. She will never be a child.

Velazquez, a precocious artistic genius, got his start painting tavern scenes his native town of Seville. At age of 24, Philip IV appointed Diego as Spain's court painter, a position he held for the rest his life.