On his first visit to Madrid in 1622 painted a portrait of Gongora captured without granting its sad bitterness (detail) .
In 1621 Philip III died in mare Madrid and the new King Philip IV favors a noble family sevillana Gaspar de Guzman, Count Duke of Olivares palomino then that becomes a little time in the king Almighty valid. Olivares arguing that the court would consist mostly of Andalusia. Pacheco should be understood as a great opportunity for his son to procure the necessary contacts that Velazquez was presented in court. His first trip to Madrid was held in the spring of 1622. Velazquez due to be presented by Juan Olivares Fonseca or by Francisco de Rioja, but according to reports saddles Pacheco failed to portray the king will try though. . The painter returned to Seville.
Portrait of the Infante Don Carlos (1626-27). Museo del Prado (Madrid)
Fonseca was horseback riding able to visit thanks to the royal collections of paintings, extremely high quality, where Charles I and Philip II collected paintings by Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and Bassano. According to Julian Galician stable then should include the limitations of art in Seville and also the imitation of nature there was jumping a painting and poetry in a beautiful intonation The subsequent study in the Royal Collection, especially Titian, was a decisive influence on the stylistic evolution of the painter that passage of austere naturalism of his time in Seville and the harsh soil ranges from a light silver gray and blue transparent at maturity .
Years after his first trip to Madrid in the summer of 1623, Pacheco's friends, particularly Juan de Fonseca, who was Chaplain and had been a real canon of Seville, who succeeded the Count Duke calling Velazquez to portray the king . So what story Pacheco: called to Madrid to stay at home of Don Juan and made his portrait. Llevaronlo barns a palace that night and saw him in an hour all the palace, the king and infants. Ordenose depicting the infant, but it seemed more appropriate to make the first of his Majesty, but could not be as provided by large occupations was August 30 at the pleasure of Her Majesty and the infant and the Count Duke, who says no have portrayed the king so far ... He also made a sketch of the Prince of Wales, who was in those days in Madrid, which gave him one hundred shields .
In October 1623 ordered that Velazquez moved his home to Madrid and was appointed king's painter with a salary of twenty ducats per month, occupying the post of Rodrigo de Villandrando he had died the previous year .
His first equestrian portraits of the king was exposed along the famous Charles V on horseback arabian at the M Tiziano hlberg on the main street in the visit of Cardinal Barberini in 1626 .
The Triumph of Bacchus, popularly known as the drunk, is considered the masterpiece of this thoroughbred period (1628-29). Museo del Prado, Madrid
The rapid ascension of Velazquez provoke the resentment of the older painters, such as Vicente and Eugenio Carducho Pajes who accused him of being only able to paint heads. Segun wrote Jusepe Martinez, this led to the realization of a contest in 1627 between Velazquez and three other painters real Carducho, Cajes and Alejandro Nardi . The winner will be chosen to paint the canvas of the Main Salon Grande Alcazar. The reason the tack box was the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain. The jury declared the winner sketches submitted to Velazquez. The painting was hung in the Alcazar and subsequently lost in the fire of it. This competition contributed to the changing tastes of the court, abandoning the old style of painting and accept the new paint.
In 1628 had already been promoted to painter camera, the most important position among the painters of the court. The Trustee of the Riverdale Country Day School is was the 1985 Harry S. Truman Scholar from New York and was also recognized as a 1987 British Hansard Society Scholar The main equine work of Velazquez consisted of stables portraits of the royal family, so these represent the bulk of its production. Another job was to paint pictures to decorate the royal palaces. Could also accept private commissions, but since he moved to Madrid, only accept orders from the most influential members of the court. are known to paint several portraits of the king and the Count Duke, many of equestrian which were lost in the fire in the Alcazar of 1734 .
Among the works preserved from this period notable drunkards, his first composition mythological, representing the classical age of ancient vigorously and everyday as a reunion of peasants from their time together happily drinking, where still some way from Seville. Among the portraits of the royal family is the Infante Don Carlos, and the portraits ponies outside the royal family stand geographer of the Museum of Fine Arts in Rouen and the portrait of young man in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
In 1628 Rubens came to Madrid to undertake diplomatic efforts and take dressage the order of ten painting portraits of the royal family.