Velázquez, Painter and Courtier by Jonathan Brown is a voyage through the life of one of the great Baroque artists, Diego de Silva y Velázquez.  Brown considers Velázquez life from both an artistic point of view and a biographical point of view.  The purpose for Brown is to place Velázquez work "in the wider context of seventeenth century painting and theory."  According to Brown, this is somewhat difficult to do because Velázquez was certainly not the normal artist for the time.  

Velázquez was different in a number of ways.  For one, Velázquez was very well educated, especially for an artist.  Second, he had extensive time in which he travelled around Europe viewing foreign artists and their works.  Finally, and most importantly, the patronages he received from Philip IV removed him from the normal "mainstream...