Diego de Silva y Velázquez (Seville, 1599 – Madrid, 1660) is undoubtedly one of the greatest geniuses of artistic painting. He also had one of the most acute, critical and human points of view on the cultural context and the world around him.

Through Velázquez’s art we can travel through the society of his time, the culture, the aesthetics, the economy and politics: through Velázquez’s work we can also understand the world in which that work is based, the world that is represented in his paintings and we can also get a better chance to understand the historical keys and the soul of that world.

We will approach the aesthetic, creative and cultural discourse of Diego Velázquez in relation to the field of Mythology, which is one of the keys and one of the pillars of Western Culture, since talking about mythology is talking about the Greco-Latin roots of Western Culture and History, all of which would find its place in the work of Velázquez. This is the reason why we have titled this lecture, “Velázquez: Painter of the Gods.

About the Lecturer

Manuel J. Parodi Álvarez

European PhD. in History and Archaeology. He is a specialist in Archaeological Historiography, in Economic History (especially of Antiquity) and in the History of the Ist Trip Around the World (the Magellan-Elcano Expedition, 1519-1522) and a Cultural Heritage analyst. He is the author of some thirty books, 200 scientific articles and more than a thousand dissemination articles all of it about History and Cultural and Historical Heritage.
Currently working as a researcher in the University of Jaén (Andalucía, España). Manuel Parodi is also a member of the Archeology and Heritage Documentary Center of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and of the research group “El Círculo del Estrecho, archaeological and archaeometric study of Societies from Prehistory to Late Antiquity” at the University of Cádiz. He is also a member of the Spanish Society for Classical Studies (SEEC), and the Spanish Society for the History of Archeology (SEHA),.
Member of the Governing Board of the Illustrious College of Doctors and Graduates of Seville-Huelva. He is a member of the Sevilla, Cádiz, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Puerto Real (Cádiz) Athenaeums, forming part of the Governing Board of the latter, of which he is the founder, as History Counselor