Giuseppe Velasquez


Giuseppe Velasquez, Velasques or Velasco was an Italian painter, active in a Neoclassic style.

Biography

He was born at Palermo into Spanish family. At the age of 15, he changed his surname to that of the Spanish painter Diego Velazquez.
He studied painting under Gaetano Mercurio and Giuseppe Tresca, but was influenced by Gioacchino Martorana. He often collaborated in providing the decoration for the structures built by the architect Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia. He was patronized by the viceroy Caramanico, for whom he painted his portrait. In 1805 he became Director of the Accademia del Nudo in at the University of Palermo, supplanting the painter Mariano Rossi. One of his pupils was Francesco la Farina.
In comparing the most eminent painters of Palermo of the early 19th century, Giuseppe Patania, Vincenzo Riolo, and Velasquez, author Carmelo Pardi noted that;
in Velasquez, the perfection of design surpassed the color; in Riolo the conventionality of the form prevailed to the study of the true, and in the Patania the natural spontaneity took precedence to the knowledge of the principles that inform art.

Velazquez died at Palermo in 1827. He was buried in the Chiesa dei Cappuccini of Palermo.

Works

Among his works: