- Artist
- Diego Velázquez
- Year
- 1634-1635
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
The Surrender of Breda (La rendición de Breda) is Diego Velázquez’s great history painting, commemorating the 1625 surrender of the Dutch city of Breda to Spanish forces. Rather than a triumphant victor, Velázquez depicts the Spanish commander Ambrogio Spinola gently consoling the defeated Justin of Nassau. The work is celebrated for its magnanimity, its masterful handling of space and atmosphere, and its unheroic, deeply humane realism.