The Pentecost: a bozzetto

Antonio Gonzalez Velázquez earned a reputation as one of the most talented Spanish painters of his generation. In 1746 he was awarded a grant from the committee of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando to study the Old Masters in Rome, and was appointed to the workshop of Corrado Giaquinto. On the request of the Minister Carvajal y Lancaster, Velázquez returned to Spain in 1752 to paint frescoes on the dome of the Santa Capilla del Pilar in Zaragoza, afterwards returning to Madrid where he received prestigious commissions from the court, including the frescoes in the Church of the Visitacisn (Saint Barbara), the churches of the convents of La Encarnacisn, Las Descalzas Reales, Saint Ann and Saint Isabel, and later the Church of Saint Justo and Pastor (today known as Saint Michael). At the time he also painted several decorative works for the Palacio Real, and was appointed Court Painter by King Fernando VI of Spain in 1756, who admired the artist's characteristic freedom of execution and brilliant use of colour.