Velasquez had an excellent education, extensive contacts with foreign art and a privileged relationship with Philip IV of Spain. He seems to have sought a new approach to the art of painting. He had an important role as a court official, which seems to have severely limited the number of pictures he was able to paint once he took up the appointment. Court society held painters in low esteem, and Velasquez was ambitious to be considered both a great painter and a great gentleman. We explore these ideas through analysis of a selection of his paintings, and through the scant biographical details left to us.