Diego Velázquez (6 June 1599 – 6 August 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV.. Diego Velázquez had a hard life. Short Biography. With his wife, he had two daughters. DescendantsVelázquez, through his daughter Francisca de Silva Velázquez y Pacheco (1619–1658), is an ancestor of the Marquesses of Monteleone, including Enriquetta (Henrietta) Casado de Monteleone (1725–1761) who in 1746 married Heinrich VI, Count Reuss zu Köstritz (1707–1783). The paternal grandparents of Diego Velázquez came from Oporto, Portugal, but both his parents were born in Seville, as was he. Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) was Spain's greatest painter in the baroque style and one of the most outstanding of the European artists of his century. 1465-1523) was a Spanish conqueror who founded Cuba and was indirectly responsible for the conquest of Aztec Mexico and Mayan Yucatán. Diego Velázquez would become one of the most renowned painters of the Baroque period. Only one nude by Velázquez still exists today. He died at the age of 61 after having painted many paintings, including the famous Las Meninas. Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar facts: Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar (ca. Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas, 1656, Museo del Prado, Madrid Las Meninas was painted in 1656 in the Cuarto del Príncipe in the Alcázar in Madrid, which is the room depicted in the work. He got married when he was eighteen.

In her research for the novel, the Georgetown professor of Spanish highlighted several little known facts about the celebrated Spanish artist.