Diego Velázquez, 1 Dollar, Series: Painters of the World

The “Painters of the World” is an international, unique series of silver collector coins, launched in 2006.

The mintage of the coin is 5,000 pieces and was struck on a silver blank of Ag 925.

Obverse:
In the central part of the coin –a painting by Diego Velázquez, the “The Maids of Honour ” from 1656, depicted bythe pad printing technique. Below it the year of issue2011 .To the left of the painting – the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with the mint’s mark (m/w) and an inscription: ELIZABETH II. Next to the Queen’s portrait – a vertical inscription: NIUE ISLAND (name of the issuer). In the upper left corner of the coin – the nominal value (1 DOLLAR).
 
Reverse:
In the central part of the coin – a painting by Diego Velázquez, the “Venus at her Mirror”, depicted by the pad printing technique. On the left side – an image of the artist. Next to it, on the right side – a stylized inscription: Diego Velázquez. Below – an inscription: 1599–1660 (the artist’s birth and death dates).

Designer: Robert Kotowicz

Diego Velázquez, properly Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, (1599 - 1660) was the most outstanding Spanish baroque painter. He is said to have painted approximately 170 pieces of art, a large number of which are portraits. His paintings are characterized by unusual colors and chiaroscuro.

His first master was a famous painter Francisco de Herrera. He also learned under the supervision of Francisco Pacheco. His first pieces of art, painted in Seville, were bodegones – “kitchen paintings”. They represented peasants and still life details. However, he became famous only thanks to his painting Los Borrachos (The Triumph of Bacchus) of 1629 which is considered as the most mature piece of art of the early period of Velázquez’s works.

In 1629-1631 he stayed in Italy. There he studied and copied paintings of great Venetian masters. Soon he was employed to decorate the new king’s residence in Madrid – the Buen Retiro Palace and the main palace hall – the royal reception room. It is then that the wonderful Surrender of Breda was painted to commemorate the successful siege of Breda by Spinola.

In 1645 the royal painter Diego Velázquez became the construction manager of the Octagonal Room in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid. Because of tensions between court artists, he decided to go to Italy for the second time. There he painted such great pieces of art as: a portrait of Pope Innocent X, a draft of gardens view Villa Medici and a wonderful painting the Rokeby Venus in which he was trying to imitate Titian.

His last works, created at the end of his life are mainly portraits: a portrait of the second wife of Philip IV of Spain, Mariana of Austria and Margarita Teresa of Spain. In that period he also painted Las Meninas or The Maids of Honor (1656) which is considered to be one of the most important works by Velázquez and the essence of baroque painting.