Disability Art: Marc Quinn

Disability Art: Theodore Gericault

Disability Art: Rembrandt Van Rijn

Disability Art: Goya

Disability Art: El Greco

Disability Art: Diego Velazquez

The second artist chosen that fits into the disability art category is Diego Velazquez. He is a Spanish painter from Spain. He like many of the following artist did portraiture. He has been known as one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age and an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period.

He was born to a noble Portuguese descendant in 1599. When Velazquez became old enough, he started studying painting with Francisco Pacheco. No one knew that eventually he would marry Pacheco’s daughter. Not long after that, he painted a portrait of Philip IV which got him in the door to the royal household. His first job was to be the marshal of the royal household in which he was responsible for the royal quarters and in charge of planning ceremonies. However, it was not long before he became the leading artist in the court of King Philp IV.

During this part of his life, Velazquez painted several paintings that depicted people with some kind of disability. One of the most popular paintings for him was the Las Meninas, which this painting showed significant characteristics of someone with Down syndrome. He decided to keep that person the way they were instead of changing them to fit the norm of that time. He also did several other portraits that just focus on the person with a disability. All of this was done while working in the royal facilities.

Disability Art: Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Now our first artist that represents disability art is Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He is referred to as many different nicknames such as the “Peasant Bruegel” but the most common is the Elder. The Elder established his mark in history through paintings and printmaking, and came to be known as one of the Netherlandish Renaissance painters.

            He became known for his landscapes and his peasant scenes which are called genre painting. This is when your artwork has a certain theme throughout it all. He usually would incorporate a landscape into his peasant scenes, which helped bring both of his genres together.  Part of the reason he earned his nickname “Peasant Bruegel” was that he had the practice of dressing up like a peasant in order to socialize at certain functions in the community such as weddings and celebrations. This practiced helped him gain inspiration and details for these paintings.

            The unusual part about him painting these scenes was that no one cared to paint the peasants during this day and age. Mainly the only people who would have their portrait painted was royalty, but he enjoyed showing others what every day for a typically person was like. It would make sure everyone saw the good, the bad, and the ugly. His mindset helped establish disability art before it was officially created and given a genre.