In his early years he painted pictures of middle-class life, in which each figure is truthfully depicted, as were the early heads in Rembrandt's 'Anatomy.' Like Rembrandt in his youth, he looked at each head separately and painted it as faithfully as he could.

The higher art of composing into the unity of a group all its parts, and keeping their perfections within such limits as best co-operate in the transcendent perfection of the whole--this was the labour and the crown of both their lives.
Velasquez's best and greatest groups are such a realized vision of life that they have remained the despair of artists to this day.
Velasquez came to Court in the year in which Charles I., as Prince of Wales, went to Madrid to woo the sister of Philip IV.

He painted her portrait twice, and made an unfinished sketch of Charles, which has unfortunately been lost.

Five years afterwards Rubens was a visitor at the Spanish Court on a diplomatic errand.

The painters took a fancy to one another, and corresponded for the remainder of their lives.
They must have talked long about their art, and the elder painter, Rubens, is thought to have promoted in Velasquez a desire to see the great treasures of Italy.