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.

Preview	Picture Data	Info
	Breakfast c. 1618 Oil on canvas, 109 x 102 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
	Head of a Man c. 1616 Oil on canvas, 40 x 36 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
	Peasants at the Table (El Almuerzo) c. 1620 Oil on canvas, 96 x 112 cm Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest
	The Immaculate Conception c. 1618 Oil on canvas, 135 x 102 cm National Gallery, London
	St John the Evangelist at Patmos c. 1618 Oil on canvas, 135 x 102 cm National Gallery, London
	Old Woman Frying Eggs 1618 Oil on canvas, 101 x 120 cm National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
	Kitchen Scene with the Supper in Emmaus c. 1618 Oil on canvas, 55 x 118 cm National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
	The Adoration of the Magi 1619 Oil on canvas, 203 x 125 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid
	Christ in the House of Mary and Martha c. 1620 Oil on canvas, 60 x 103,5 cm National Gallery, London
	Christ in the House of Mary and Martha (detail) c. 1620 Oil on canvas National Gallery, London
	The Supper at Emmaus c. 1620 Oil on canvas, 123.2 x 132.7 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
	Abbess Jerónima de la Fuente 1620 Oil on canvas, 162 x 107,5 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid
	St Ildefonso Receiving the Chasuble from the Virgin c. 1620 Oil on canvas, 166 x 120 cm Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville
	Head of a Girl c. 1618 Chalk drawing, 150 x 117 mm Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid