Paintings until 1620

The artistic school of Seville was the most important in Spain during the first half of the seventeenth century. The public of Seville greatly appreciated the bodegones genre. The bodegon is not just a still life; it originally depicted a tavern or cookhouse, or showed ordinary people in settings where food and drink figured prominently. At the same time these superficially ordinary subjects often concealed allegorical, moral or religious meanings. Velázquez painted nine bodegones, and they mark the beginning of his career. In his bodegones Velázquez followed an artistic tendency of the early seventeenth century which derived from the painting of Caravaggio. An early example is the Old Woman Frying Eggs.

Velázquez also painted religious subjects such as The Adoration of the Magi, and he united different the stylistic genres with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.

Velázquez also showed a precocious talent for portraiture as exemplified by the portrait of Abbess Jerónima de la Fuente.