Velázquez experimented with painting technique from an early age. His master, Pacheco, produced works with smooth, seamless surfaces, but Velázquez played with texture and the effects of different brushstrokes.

In 'Christ in the House of Martha and Mary', painted when the artist was only nineteen, a couple of swift brushstrokes perfectly evoke the dry, papery skin from a piece of garlic. Velázquez makes us aware of the hand of the artist and of the paint itself, as well as the thing being painted.

Velázquez seems to have been aware of the kind of optical phenomena that were to fascinate the Impressionists two hundred years later.

In 'The Rokeby Venus', the model's feet and elbows are out of focus, recreating the experience of seeing them only in our peripheral vision.

The King's costume in 'Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver', is created out of blobs and swirls of paint which make no sense close up, but from a distance transform into an intricate pattern. This abstract quality and the enormous economy of technique in his work seem extraordinarily modern.

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