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Biography
The greatest painter
of the Spanish
School. He was born
in Seville, where in
1610/11 he was
apprenticed to
Pacheco
(possibly following
a brief period of
study with
Herrera the Elder).
In 1617 he qualified
as a master painter
and in the following
year he married
Pacheco's daughter.
Velázquez was
exceptionally
precocious and while
he was still in his
teens he painted
pictures that
display commanding
presence and
complete technical
mastery. Pacheco's
style in religious
paintings was
Italianate, dry, and
academic; Velázquez
revitalized it by
following his
master's advice to
'go to nature for
everything', and in
works such as
The Immaculate
Conception
(National Gallery,
London, c. 1618) and
The Adoration of the
Magi (Prado,
Madrid, 1619) he
developed a more
lifelike approach to
religious art in
which the figures
are portraits rather
than ideal types
(his young wife may
be the model for the
Virgin in both these
pictures). The
light, too, is
realistically
observed, even
though it has a
mysterious,
spiritual quality.
In their strong
chiaroscuro as well
as their naturalism
such pictures show
an affinity with the
work of
Caravaggio and
his followers. The
clotted but supple
brushwork is,
however, already
entirely Velázquez's
own. Contemporary
with these religious
works were a series
of bodegones, a type
of genre scene to
which he brought a
new seriousness and
dignity, as in
The Waterseller of
Seville
(Wellington Museum,
London, c. 1620).
In 1622 Velázquez
paid a short visit
to Madrid, during
which he painted a
portrait of the poet
Luis de Gongora
(Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston). In
the following year
he was recalled to
the capital by
Philip IV's chief
minister, the
Count-Duke Olivares,
and painted a
portrait of the king
(now lost) that
pleased Philip so
much that he
appointed him one of
his court painters
and declared that
now only Velázquez
should paint his
portrait. Thus, at
the age of 24, he
had suddenly become
the country's most
prestigious painter,
and he kept his
position as the
king's favourite
unchallenged for the
rest of his life.
With his appointment
as court painter,
the direction of
Velázquez's work
changed. He entirely
abandoned bodegones,
and although he
painted historical,
mythological, and
religious pictures
intermittently
throughout his
career, he was from
now on primarily a
portraitist.
Technically, too,
his work changed as
a result of his move
to Madrid, his
brushwork becoming
broader and more
fluid under the
influence
particularly of the
Titians in the royal
collection. Although
his portraits of the
king and his
courtiers are grand
and dignified, he
humanized the formal
tradition of Spanish
court portraiture
derived from
Mor and
Coello, setting
his models in more
natural poses,
giving them greater
life and character,
and eliminating
unnecessary
accessories. The
king (who was six
years younger than
Velázquez) had an
extremely high
opinion of the
artist's personal
qualities as well as
his artistic skills,
and the warmth with
which he treated him
was considered
astonishing, given
the stiff etiquette
for which the
Spanish court was
renowned. In 1627
Philip made
Velázquez 'Usher of
the Chamber', the
first of a series of
appointments that
brought him great
prestige but took up
much of his time in
trivial bureaucratic
matters, thus
partially accounting
for his fairly small
output as a painter.
He was conscientious
in his duties,
however, and
apparently well
suited to them
temperamentally.
In 1628-29
Rubens visited
Spain on a
diplomatic mission
and he and Velázquez
became friends.
Palomino records
that the contact
with Rubens 'revived
the desire Velázquez
had always had to go
to Italy', and the
king duly gave him
permission to travel
there. Velázquez was
in Italy from 1629
to 1631, visiting
Genoa, Venice, and
Naples, but spending
most of his time in
Rome. Two major
paintings date from
this period -
Joseph's Coat (Escorial,
Madrid) and
The Forge of Vulcan
(Prado), works that
show how his
brushwork loosened
still further under
the influence of the
great Venetian
masters and how his
mastery of figure
composition matured.
The 1630s and 1640s
(before he again
left for Italy) were
the most productive
period of
Velázquez's career.
His series of
royal and
court portraits
continued and he
expanded his range
in a series of
glorious
equestrian portraits
(Prado). In these he
showed an
unprecedented
ability to attain
complete atmospheric
unity between
foreground and
background in the
landscape. Their
rhetorical poses are
in the Baroque
tradition, but they
are without bombast
or allegorical
embellishments and
as portraits are
characteristically
direct.
The same ability to
look beyond external
trappings to the
human mystery
beneath is seen in
his incomparable
series of portraits
of the pitiful
court fools (Prado)
—
dwarfs and
idiots whom
Philip, like other
monarchs, kept for
his amusement.
Velázquez presents
them without any
suggestion of
caricature, but with
pathos and human
understanding, as if
they too are worthy
of his respect.
During the 1630s and
1640s Velázquez
occasionally painted
religious and
mythological
works, but they are
all eclipsed by his
great masterpiece of
contemporary history
painting,
The Surrender of
Breda (Prado,
1634-5), one of a
series of twelve
paintings by various
court artists
glorifying the
military triumphs of
Philip's reign that
were executed for
the new Buen Retiro
Palace in Madrid.
The composition is
highly organized,
but Velázquez
creates a remarkable
sense of actuality
and no earlier
picture of a
contemporary
historical event had
seemed so
convincing.
Characteristically,
he concentrates on
the human drama of
the situation, as
Ambrogio Spinola,
the chivalrous
Spanish commander,
receives the key of
the town from
Justin of Nassau,
his Dutch
counterpart, with a
superb gesture of
magnanimity.
Between 1648 and
1651 Velázquez paid
another visit to
Italy in order to
purchase paintings
and antiques for the
royal collection (he
may have been there
briefly in 1636 but
the evidence is
inconclusive).
Again, he spent most
of the time in Rome,
where he painted
several portraits,
including two of his
most celebrated
works -
Juan de Pareja
(Metropolitan
Museum, New York,
1650) and
Pope Innocent X
(Doria Gallery,
Rome, 1650). Juan de
Pareja
(c.l610-c.l670), who
was himself a
painter, was
Velázquez's mulatto
slave (he granted
him his freedom
while they were in
Rome), and Velázquez
painted this
portrait because he
felt he needed some
practice before
tackling that of the
pope. The Innocent X
is by common consent
one of the world's
supreme masterpieces
of portraiture,
unsurpassed in its
breathtaking
handling of paint
and so incisive in
characterization
that the pope
himself said the
picture was 'troppo
vero' (too
truthful). While in
Rome Velázquez
fathered an
illegitimate son,
Antonio, by a widow
named Martha, but
nothing is known of
what became of
mother or child.
They may have been
on Velázquez's mind
when he applied for
(and was refused)
permission to return
to Italy in 1657,
but his life and
work continued to
unfold with the same
serious dignity and
the skeleton in his
cupboard remained
hidden until 1983,
when the
documentation was
published.
In his final years
in Madrid, Velázquez
continued to acquire
new honours (the
greatest was being
made a knight of the
Order of Santiago in
1659) and to reach
new heights as a
painter. His last
portraits of the
royal family are
mainly of the new
young Queen,
Mariana of Austria,
and of the
royal children.
In these works his
brushwork has become
increasingly
sparkling and free,
and the gorgeous
clothes the sitters
wore (such a change
from the sombre
costumes of the king
and male courtiers)
allowed him to show
his prowess as a
colourist (several
examples are in
the
Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna).
Velázquez never
ceased to base his
work on scrutiny of
nature, but his
means grew
increasingly subtle,
so that detail is
entirely
subordinated to
overall effect. Thus
in his late works
space and atmosphere
are depicted with
unprecedented
vividness, but when
the pictures are
looked at closely
the forms dissolve
into what Kenneth
Clark called 'a
fricassee of
beautiful
brushstrokes'. As
Palomino put it,
'one cannot
understand it if
standing too close,
but from a distance
it is a miracle.'
The culmination of
his career is
Las Meninas (The
Maids of Honour) (Prado.
c. 1656). It
shows Velázquez at
his easel, with
various members of
the royal family and
their attendants in
his studio, but it
is not clear whether
he has shown himself
at work on a
portrait of the king
and queen (who are
reflected in a
mirror) when
interrupted by the
Infanta Margarita
and her maids of
honour or vice
versa. Velázquez's
prominence in the
picture seems to
assert his own
importance and his
pride in his art,
but in the
background he has
included two
pictures by Rubens
showing the downfall
of mortals who
challenge the gods
in the arts.
Apparently
spontaneous but in
the highest degree
worked out, it is
both Velázquez's
most complex essay
in portraiture and
an expression of the
high claims he made
for the dignity of
his art.
Luca Giordano
called it 'the
Theology of
Painting' because
'just as theology is
superior to all
other branches of
knowledge, so is
this the greatest
example of
painting'. Posterity
has endorsed his
verdict, for in a
poll of artists and
critics in The
Illustrated London
News in August 1985,
Las Meninas was
voted — by some
margin — 'the
world's greatest
painting'.
The number of good contemporary copies of Velázquez's work indicates
that he ran a busy
studio, but of his
pupils only his
son-in-law
Mazo achieved
any kind of
distinction. As with
most Spanish
painters, Velázquez
remained little
known outside his
own country until
the Napoleonic Wars,
but from the early
19th century the
technical freedom of
his work made him an
inspiration to
progressive artists,
above all Manet, who
regarded him as the
greatest of all
painters. Most of
Velázquez's work is
still in Spain, and
his genius can be
fully appreciated
only in the Prado,
which has most of
his key
masterpieces.
Outside Spain, he is
best represented in
London — in the
National Gallery,
which has his only
surviving female
nude, the
Rokeby Venus (c.
1648), in the
Wellington Museum,
and in the Wallace
Collection.
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