Diego Vélasquez

Diego Rodríguez de Silva there Velázquez (June 1599 - August 6th, 1660), known as Diego Vélasquez in French, is a painter century of Spanish gold having had a considerable influence at the court of the King Philippe IV. He is generally considered, with Francisco Goya and Greco, like one of largest the artists of the Spanish history. Its style, while remaining very personal, fits resolutely in the running baroque of this period. Its two visits paid in Italy, attested by the documents of the time, had a decisive effect on the evolution of its work. In addition to many paintings with historical value or cultural, Diego Vélasquez is the author of a profusion of portraits representing the Spanish royal family, other large characters European or even of the common people. Its artistic talent, of the general opinion, reached its top in 1656 with the realization of Ménines , its principal masterpiece.

Starting from the first quarter of the 19th century, the style of Vélasquez was taken for model by the realistic painters and impressionist, in particular Edouard Manet. Since, more contemporary artists like Pablo Picasso and El Salvador Dalí paid homage to their famous compatriot by recreating several of his most famous works.

Childhood

Diego Vélasquez was born with Seville, in Andalusia, at the beginning of the month of June 1599, and was baptized the 6 of the same month in the Saint-Pierre church of Seville. He was the son of Juan Rodríguez de Silva, a man of law resulting from the Portuguese Aristocratie , and Jerónima Vélasquez, who belonged to the minor nobility of the hidalgos . The Spanish habit authorized an oldest son indeed to adopt the name of his/her mother if an important maternal heritage were concerned. His/her parents taught the fear of God to the Diego young person and, intending it for a qualified trade, gave him a solid education in the field of the Langue S and the Philosophie. But the child showed already a particular predisposition for the Art, and was consequently placed in training with the workshop of Francisco de Herrera the Old man, an impetuous painter having only scorn for the style Italianizing then in vogue in Seville. Vélasquez, terrified by angers of its Master, remained with him only one year: it is probably at the time of this stay that he learned how to make use of brushes equipped with long hairs.

Old of only eleven years at its exit of the workshop of Herrera, Diego continued its training at Francisco Pacheco, an artist and a well established teacher of Seville. Although often regarded as a painter dull, banal or even pedant, Pacheco could sometimes express a very direct Réalisme, in contradiction with the style of Raphaël that one had taught to him. Vélasquez followed the teaching of its Master during five years. Its presence in the workshop enabled him to learn all subtleties from the proportions and the perspective , like observing in privileged witness the literary and artistic evolutions of the time.

Madrid (first period)

Birth of realism in Seville

Vélasquez fell in love with the girl from Pacheco, Juana, and in 1618 with the cordial blessing of its former Master married it. The young painter stuck to start with the representation of very common objects: terra cotta earthenware jars of use in the countryside, birds, Poisson S, Fruit S and Fleur S of the place of the market made the essence of its daily newspaper. A particularly remarkable work of this period is the old woman making fry eggs ( Spanish Vieja friendo huevos in ), in which the artist betrays his attachment with the style of the Greco, characterized by strong contrasts of luminosity, but especially of the Caravage through his virtuosity in the technique of clearly-obscure and his intimate and major naturalism.

At the dawn of the Years 1620, the reputation of Vélasquez was already firmly established with Seville. His wife had been confined of two girls constituting her only known family: Francisca, baptized the May 18th 1619, and Ignacia. The latter died in low age, and Francisca remained thus the single child of the couple. She was to marry itself later a painter of the name of Bautista del Mazo.

Vélasquez at that time carried out other important works of its life: it devoted in particular a big part of its time to the topics religious, with the Worship of the Magi in 1619 ( Adoración of los Reyes ) or the Christ and the Pilgrims of Emmaüs in 1626 ( Jesús there los peregrinos of Emaús ), two fabrics highlighting a more pointed and careful realism, although still a little hard.

Madrid and Philippe IV

Vélasquez, increasingly eager to travel, went to Madrid in 1622, provided with a letter of introduction intended for the Count - Duc Juan Fonseca, which enjoyed one good position at the court. It spent several months there, with its servant for only company. The young person painter seems to have made strong impression in the Spanish capital , since it was recalled there as of the following year by the count-duke of Olivares, the Almighty Minister for the king Philippe IV. One went even until him to offer fifty Ducat S, that is to say 175 Gram S of Or, to meet his needs. Vélasquez was this time accompanied by his/her father-in-law Francisco Pacheco. The following year, in 1624, it accepted from the king the sum of 300 ducats to enable him to make come its family to Madrid: Vélasquez agreed to it, and the capital consequently remained its principal place of residence until its death.

Although of a voluntary temperament enough not very, Philippe was a true king epicurean impassioned Chasse, women, and was over all a large amateur of Art, going even until drawing a certain pride from its own talents in Poésie or Peinture. The historians put at his credit that there could remain the faithful and devoted friend of Vélasquez during thirty-six years. The King indeed detected very quickly the gift of the young man, and declared that no other painter that could not from now on make him its portrait.

The realization of an equestrian portrait of Philippe IV, in 1623, marked the beginning of the engagement of Vélasquez with the service of the king, which conferred some privileges automatically to him: in addition to its monthly salary of twenty ducats, it profited from a company flat, medical care at will and of a complementary remuneration for all works which it could paint. The first portrait of the king was exposed to the entry of the palate, where he was admired and commented on with enthusiasm by the poets of the court. Work unfortunately disappeared, probably at the time of one of the many fires having devastated the royal palaces of the country.

The Museum of Prado, however, has two other portraits of Philippe IV carried out by Vélasquez and in which the roughness of its period of Seville grew blurred, to leave the place to let us tons more delicate. The layout is firm, recalling in that the style of Antonio Moro, the portraitist Dutch of Philippe II which exerted a so great influence on the Spanish school. The same year, the Prince de Galles (future Charles Ier of England) returned visit to the court of Spain. Documents of the time indicate that it posed for Vélasquez, but the fabric disappeared. In 1628, it was with the turn of Rubens to go to Madrid within the framework of a diplomatic mission nine months. Vélasquez was indicated by the king to be the guide of Rubens during its discovery of the Spanish artistic inheritance. The old Flemish painter , then at the top of his glory, benefitted from his displacement to accept an order on behalf of the Olivares count-duke (the large tables which resulted from it now decorate the principal hall of Grosvenor House, with London). These a few months undoubtedly had an impact determining for the man still rather little known who was Vélasquez, because Rubens, as an experienced courtier, was not deprived to acknowledge all its admiration with the young Spaniard. That did not have any visible effect in the short run on the very personal style of Vélasquez. This last nevertheless was impressed, and envies it consequently took to him to discover the Italy and its large legendary Masters.

In 1627, the king organized a contest of painting open to all the artists of the country on the topic of the expulsion of the Moor S. Vélasquez gained the first price, but its table was destroyed by a fire of the palate in 1734. Descriptions of the time indicate that work represented Philippe III of Spain, designating of its stick a crowd of men and women escorted by soldiers, while Spain, as a majestic woman, attended the scene calmly. This triumph was worth in Vélasquez to be appointed usher at the court of the king. One also granted to him from this moment a daily sum of twelve réaux (the same amount as for the barbers of the court) like 90 ducats per annum for his expenses of clothing.

Five years later, Vélasquez was gratifié of 100 ducats additional for its Bacchus , carried out in 1629. The spirit and the message of this work can more easily include/understand according to its Spanish title in : Los Borrachos means “the Drinkers indeed”, and the fabric depicts the parodic homage addressed by a group of drunkards to a naked young man to half, capped of a crown of Lierre and sat on a barrel of Vin. The table, impresses humor and of joviality, is not without pointing out the atmosphere of literary works of Cervantès. Bacchus is in addition exemplary way in which Vélasquez could benefit from an attentive study of the country life: the drawing is of a great insurance, and the effects of shade and light are controlled better than in preceding works of the artist. It is undoubtedly the fabric which characterizes best the style of Vélasquez in the first part of its life.

The Italian period of Vélasquez

It is of use to subdivide the artistic career of Vélasquez in several periods, while being based in particular on its two voyages in Italy: while the works carried out following the first voyage correspond to its second period, those according to the second voyage would belong to its third and last period of creativity. This somewhat arbitrary classification, without missing relevance, does not find however always to apply. As it is the case at many painters, the various styles of Vélasquez tend sometimes to intermingle at certain times with its life.

Vélasquez seldom affixed its signature on its portraits, and the royal archives provide a date only for its most important works.

First voyage in Italy

In 1629, Philippe IV ends up authorizing Vélasquez to go to remain in Italy, without him to hold rigor of it: its wages at the court were indeed maintained, and the king made him gift of 400 Ducat S, to which the count-duke of Olivares added 200 ducats personally. The painter embarked on a ship as of the month of August to Barcelona. It achieves its voyage in company of the marquis de Spinola, the large winner of Breda, which was then on the way to take the command of the Spanish troops with Milan. It is undoubtedly during this crossing that Vélasquez learned the details from the rendering of Breda and that took the desire to him for carrying out a fabric on this subject. It would seem that the painter also benefitted from the voyage to outline a portrait of the large soldier. Work is lost today, but the features of the marquis de Spinola are nevertheless known for us thanks to a table of Antoine Van Dyck.

Once with Venice, Vélasquez was rained to carry out copies of some scenes of the New Testament painted by Tintoret, in particular the Crucifixion and the Dernier Meal , to send them to the king d' Espagne. To Rome, in the same way, it attempted to make drawings according to the largest masterpieces of Michel-Angel and Raphaël. Placed with the Villa Médicis thanks to the steps of the Count of Monterrey, ambassador of Spain and brother-in-law of Olivares, Vélasquez was however constrained by a fever to turn over downtown to avoid contaminating its hosts.

It is at this time that it painted the Forging mill of Vulcan . Work represents Apollon announcing with a amazed Vulcan, depicts under the features of a blacksmith of village, the news of the inaccuracy of Venus, while four men attend the scene with curiosity. The Mythologie gréco-Roman is treated here in the same way that for Bacchus : realism very intimist of the scene is used as framework with the typically Spanish decoration of a forging mill in Andalusia. Only Apollo indicates as a whole, in order to point out the subject of the fabric. Although the design of the unit is rather banal, the personality of work remains strong thanks to promptness of the drawing and with the expressive capacity of the faces. Modelled stripped body, in particular, is extremely detailed.

the Forging mill of Vulcan is in any case of a quality higher than other painting than Vélasquez realized at the same period, Jacob receiving the tunic of Joseph , preserved today at the Escurial. The absence of any perceptible Italian influence in each one of these two works is in addition rather curious.

The painter also made profitable his stay in Rome to carry out two splendid landscapes of the Jardin S of the Médicis Villa. The art landscape designer was rather not very widespread in Spain, which did not prevent Vélasquez from showing its talents in this other field.

The traveller, always in search of discoveries, chooses to make a last halt with Naples with the end of the year 1630, and could work there with his compatriot Jose de Ribera. This last enjoyed a great fame in the city, which was directed since 1504 by a Spanish viceroy. However the infante doña Maria, sister of the king Philippe IV, was precisely of passage to the court of the viceroy since the month of April. It agreed to be let paint by Vélasquez so that this last can bring back the table to the king, that it had not seen any more for a long time. Once charming it portrait carried out, the infante left the December 18th for the Hungary to join her husband, the emperor Ferdinand III, which she had married by procuration with Madrid. Vélasquez, its achieved task, probably left Naples at the same time as the infante, but to join Spain.

The return to Madrid (intermediate period)

Of return in Spain, Vélasquez carried out long series of portraits of the young person prince Baltasar Carlos, heir with the crown to Spain. The first of them, the Prince Baltasar Carlos with his dwarf , date of the month of March 1631. Still old with hardly sixteen months, Baltasar is covered with an elegant costume Vert dark and embroidered Or, holding with a hand its stick of command and the other a sword: all contributes in the balance of the portrait to ensure its domination symbolic system. A dwarf little girl is directly on the left. She does not pay any attention to her rattle of money and seems to look with much attention an element located out of the framework. It was usual in the Spanish painters of this time to make appear dwarves or buffoons in their portraits, and Vélasquez will join again regularly with this practice.

In another later portrait, the Prince Baltasar Carlos with the royal horse-gear with the count-duke of Olivares , the child, in large uniform of marshal on his Horse, already presents in a noble maintenance very and worthy for its age. The scene is held at the school of horsemanship of the palate: the King and the Reine attend the scene since a balcony, while the count-duke of Olivares day before on the mounting of the prince. Don Baltasar found death in 1646 at the seventeen years age: to judge some by its age on the portrait, this last was undoubtedly carried out towards 1641.

The powerful Olivares minister was right from the start a faithful and effective guard of Vélasquez. The dark and impassive features of its face are well-known for us thanks to the many portraits carried out by the painter. Among them, two particularly are successful: on the first, the count-duke, represented in foot, poses very officially and raises the green cross of the Alcantara. The second (to see above) is a large equestrian portrait depicting Olivares in a rather flattering way as a marshal in full battle. These two portraits illustrate the gratitude of Vélasquez towards that which was its first guard: the painter did not give up Olivares besides after his disgrace, with the risk to attract the anger and the jealousy of Philippe. But the king does not seem to have held rigor of it with his favorite artist.

As for famous the Rendering of Breda , realized at the same time, the inspiration came to Vélasquez following its voyage in company from the marquis de Spinola, which had subjected this Dutch city a few years before. This masterpiece illustrates the exchange of the key of the city between Spanish soldiers Dutch and . One perceives the influence of the Greco in the manner of dividing the table into two practically autonomous sides one compared to the other. the rendering of Breda was one of the twelve paintings intended for the ornament of the large living room of pageantry of the very new royal palace of Madrid, the Buen Retiro . Each of the twelve tables, carried out by Vélasquez or other artists, was to represent one of the twelve great victories gained by the Armée S with Philippe IV since the beginning of its reign, in 1621, until 1633. The work of Vélasquez stresses the total tender of the representative of the Netherlanders, like on the generous and benevolent magnanimity of the marquis de Spinola, the Spanish military superiority being symbolized by the impressive cloud of lances in background.

Vélasquez stuck in any circumstance to remain in the immediate entourage of Philippe IV, by accompanying it for example at the time of its voyages in Aragon in 1642 and 1644. Its presence, in the same way, is not any doubt when the king penetrated while conquering in the town of Lérida. It is on this occasion that it carried out a large equestrian portrait of its sovereign, in which the latter is represented as a courageous commander leading his troops to the combat - a role that Philippe never exerted in reality. All the elements of the fabric seem in full movement, except for the severe features of the king himself. The table can be regarded as during large equestrian portrait of Olivares, and competes of elegance with the similar portrait of Charles Quint carried out by Titien. It is precisely this famous work which encouraged Vélasquez to be exceeded: one away century, the two portraits shine each one by their silver plated colors and realism of the decorations in the open air.

Vélasquez, like habit, had painted the covered king of a golilla , i.e. of a very stiff white collar setting up in right angles since the neck. This behavior had been invented by Philippe IV in person, if to trust of its lucky find that it celebrated it by a festival followed by a procession towards the church, where it addressed his thanks to God for the blessing of which it had been the favor. The golilla was thus binding quickly like a Mode impossible to circumvent on the court, and this vestimentary element appears in the majority of the male portraits of the time.

Portraits painted by Vélasquez

Of the royal family to the “people of modest means”

Well beyond the few forty portraits of Philippe IV, Vélasquez rented its talents with other members of the royal family. It is in particular the case of the first woman of Philippe, Elisabeth de France, and of his/her children, in particular elder the Baltasar Carlos (cf supra ), of which there exists a superb full-length portrait in a private part of the Palais of Buckingham. Other people of more common row passed by the workshop of the artist, in particular of the riding , the Soldat S, the ecclesiastical or of the Poète S of the court. All, if they were forgotten by the Histoire, did not survive less about it in the memories thanks to the brush of the painter. He is not until faithful the " slave " of Vélasquez, Juan de Pareja, which was not entitled to a splendid portrait (see above), which shows the great regard in which its Master held. It is at the time of its second stay with Rome in 1650 that Vélasquez painted the portrait of Juan. The work, perhaps carried out as a front transmission attacking the portrait of the Pope Innocent X (to see below), manages to seize in detail at the same time capacity very worthy of Pareja and its somewhat rapiécés clothing. It is about the one of the best portraits ever produced by the painter.

Contrary to the Italian tradition , the Spanish of the time showed a certain reserve with immortaliser the features of their more beautiful Femme S: the Queen S and the infantes certainly were frequently painted and admired, but such a favor was much more rarely granted to the simple ladies of the high society. One can only lose oneself in conjectures about the identity of tempting the Dame to the range, whose portrait makes today the pride of the Wallace collection to London.

Dwarves and buffoons

So relatively little Spanish reached the workshop of Vélasquez, it went from there differently from the dwarf S and the Bouffon S of the court. These beings deformed and often suffering from a mental handicap manage to cause a great sympathy, even a certain compassion under the brush of the artist, which draft with softness and kindness while emphasizing in a seizing way their deep humanity. It is particularly true Portrait of a dwarf holding a volume on his knees : the intelligence of the features of the character, just as enormous the delivers and the bottle of Encre at its sides shows at which point the man wiser and is cultivated that the majority of gallant of the court, as opposed to what would let suppose appearances. For a long time, however, the commentators saw in this table only a joke of Vélasquez. The painter, thought, would have simply had fun to represent a dwarf “ disguised as a philosopher studying ”, without that corresponding to the real intelligence of the model. It is only in 1872 that the assumption was put forth according to which the man in question could be gift Diego de Acedo, called El Primo because of its statute of favorite near the king Philippe IV. The refined and cultivated atmosphere in which the portrait bathes, under these conditions, would thus appear perfectly serious and justified.

Other works such as the Portrait of the buffoon Pablo de Valladolid (1637), where the subject east depicts in full declamation, or the Portrait of the dwarf Francisco Lezcano (1645) belong to the same vein.

But the representation of the dwarf most famous of Vélasquez is probably the Portrait of a dwarf sitting with ground . The man, which one knows according to the royal archives that it named gift Sebastián de Morra, east depicts in an interesting posture in more than one way. This bearded dwarf, covered of a Green costume to the colors very sharp of and red, offers a contrast striking with a rather dark background, thus emphasizing the apparently well-known whimsical character of the character. The impression of smallness is strongly reinforced by the play of the perspective , which presents only one very shortened sight of the legs, without counting the singular aspect of the feet rectified upwards. The sensuality and the virility which are expressed in the features of the face, specific to a man of normal size, are only more development by it.

Religious paintings

Most important of religious paintings of Vélasquez was carried out at the same time: the Crucifixion (or Christ crucifié ), in spite of its rather conventional topic, depicts the death of the Christ with an exceptional originality. The head of Jesus, inert, rests on its chest, and its hair in disorder hides part of its face. The background, of a uniform Noir, lets arise the fact that Christ is absolutely alone. Work had formerly been lengthened in order to be able to be inserted in the oratory of a Chapelle. This addition for summer has removed.

One should not neglect only the fact of being attached so early to the court of king d' Espagne is not only one chance for the painter as for his formidable social rise (it was anobli at the end of its life), but also for his independence with respect to the religious orders, which would have it in the contrary case flooded their religious orders.

The son-in-law of Vélasquez, Bautista del Mazo, had succeeded to him in his functions of usher in 1634 and also climbed to him very quickly the levels of the royal house. He touched for his paintings, as of 1640, an annual pension of 500 Ducat S, high with 700 ducats in 1648. He was in addition named factory inspector of the palate in 1647.

As for Vélasquez itself, it from now on was called by other tasks: the King entrusted the project lengthily matured to him to found an academy of the fine arts in Spain. Already rich in Painting S, the country suffered on the other hand from a lack of Statue S, and Vélasquez was sent once again in Italy to carry out acquisitions there.

Second voyage in Italy

Accompanied by its assistant mulatto and friendly Juan de Pareja, to which he had taught subtleties of the Peinture, Vélasquez embarked on a ship with Málaga in 1649. It took foot with Genoa, before continuing its voyage to Milan and Venice, buying with the passage fabrics Titien, Tintoret or of Véronèse. With Modena, the painter was accepted with much heat by the Duc: it was delayed there somewhat to carry out the portrait of its host and two other tables, preserved since 1746 at Dresden, in Germany.

These works, by their invoice, announce the third and last stylistic period of the painter. The same applies to large portrait of the Pape Innocent X, exposed to the Galerie Doria-Pamphilj of Rome, city where Vélasquez went then. The spiritual leader of the Christendom accommodated it with a very marked favor, by making him for example gift of a medal and a chain in Or. Vélasquez took care to make a copy of the portrait to be able to bring back of it a specimen in Spain. At the present time, one counts several copies distributed in different Musée S: some are studies drawn up starting from the original, while others are counterparts carried out for Philippe IV. It is in the Portrait of Innocent X that Vélasquez seems to reach for the first time the will manera abreviada , term invented by the Spaniards of the time to characterize this daring and distinct style. The portrait reproduces the expression of the face of Innocent X with such a truth that some with the the Vatican even feared that the pope is not indisposed. But this last, on the contrary, was magic result, and suspended the table in the anteroom where were to await its visitors. Joshua Reynolds, portraitist English of the 18th century, went until declaring that work was the most beautiful painting which can be found in Rome. Many centuries later, the painter Francis Bacon, by his own consent obsessed by this work, would be inspired some to imagine an alternative expressionnist entitled Figure with Meat (1954), representing the pope between two halves of a Vache crossed into two.

Return in Spain (late period)

The king Philippe IV, however, was languished of sound favorite painter: after a short passage to Naples where it could return visit to his old friend Jose de Ribera, Vélasquez thus turned over in Spain via Barcelona in 1651. It carried with him many Peinture S and more than three hundred Statue S, all intended to be arranged with the suitability of the king. The statues of naked, that the Spanish Église had of horror, disappeared gradually after the death from Philippe. Elisabeth de France had died in 1644, and the king had married Marie-Anne of Austria, which in its turn was frequently painted by Vélasquez. But the painter had in parallel received the title of aposentador major , which entrusted to him the responsibility for the good behavior of the districts occupied by the court. This heavy load did not have anything honorary, and was going consequently to interfere with its artistic activities. However, well far from declining in quality, works of this period constitute more the good examples of its style.

The Spain then counted primarily two patrons, namely the Catholic church and Philippe IV itself. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was the artist of predilection of the ecclesiastics, while Vélasquez was supported by the court. The differences between the two men are considerable: whereas Murillo, after a life of labor to the service of a Church however rich and powerful, died with hardly what to finance its burial, Vélasquez lived and died out in the records of the life courtesan.

Ménines

detailed Article: Ménines

One of the infantes, Marguerite, the oldest daughter of the news Queen, is the subject of Ménines ( Las Meninas in Spanish). It is probably about the chief of work of Vélasquez. Carried out four years before its death, the table is made with him only the ambassador running baroque entire. Work was carried to naked as of its creation: Luca Giordano, a Italian painter of the time, qualified it “ theology of painting ”. As for the English Thomas Lawrence, it lives in the capacity of the table to produce very exactly the desired effect the object even of the “ philosophy of art ”.

The message of work was interpreted in various ways. Certain commentators advance that the rather vague reflection of the King and the Reine on the Miroir of the bottom could symbolize the imminent decline of the Spanish empire, which would be concretized only after the death of the artiste.

Michel Foucault, in the Words and the things , makes a masterly analysis of this table. The spectator is little by little brought to realize that with the background, among the portraits covering the side of the wall, one of them has a strange reflection, which makes think of a Miroir. He includes/understands whereas the royal couple is reflected there. Then the glance returns towards the front of the scene, towards Vélasquez painting (its brush has just left the fabric). It comes out from this provision that the painter represented himself in full realization of a portrait of the royal couple, in a remarkable example of Mise in abyme. The glance of the artist goes besides beyond the framework of the table, because it fixes the King and the Reine which are further, at the place even of the person contemplating work. The painter then crosses the glance of the spectator who looks at the fabric, and which, at the time even of this exchange of glances, becomes itself, one moment, the model of the table.

The red cross of the Ordre of Santiago appearing on the chest of the painter would have been added subsequently by Philippe IV itself, since Vélasquez accepted this eminent distinction of Chevalerie only three years after the execution of the table. Even the king of Spain, indeed, could not adouber his favorite without the agreement of the special subcommittee charged to check the genealogical purity of the interested party. The objective of this investigation was to avoid the social advancement of any person proving to have traces of Jewish blood or Moor in the veins, in other words not having famous the Limpieza of sangre . It was necessary, in the same way, as none of the two branches of the family practiced the Commerce on several generations. The documents produced by the commission were found among the files about Santiago. Vélasquez was finally accepted in 1659: in spite of his activity, one could not in fact to regard it as a merchant, since its statute of official painter of the king obviously exempted it to sell its paintings.

Venus with its mirror

Without the credit that Vélasquez gained to see its adhesion thus under consideration in the Ordre of Santiago, it would probably not have escaped with the Censure of the Spanish Inquisition in connection with superb the Venus with its mirror . It is about only the naked female of the painter who has been able to arrive to us. Its date of composition lends nevertheless to debate: until recently, the specialists were of agreement to locate the table towards the end of the decade 1650, i.e. in the twilight of the career of Vélasquez. This assumption was put at evil following the discovery of the inventory of a private collection going back to June 1st 1651, and quoting by name Venus with its mirror . This unexpected index makes go up the creation of the table until the period preceding the second voyage by the artist in Italy, probably between 1644 and 1648. However, the fully succeeded style of this masterpiece always justifies its classification among the latest work of the painter.

Venus with its mirror , more still than other paintings of Vélasquez, underwent the rigors of time. Beyond the traditional tears or frictions, the table for example was vandalisé with blows of Couteau in 1914 by a militant Suffragette. In addition, a a little brutal restoration of the work, occurred in 1965, deeply deteriorated certain original colors of the drawing, as the initial Gris of the layer on which rests Venus, today very clearly blue.

But that does not remove of anything its interest in the table, of which all the elements seem to converge to confer on the scene a powerful erotic load : the exuberant promptness of the colors, which it is about the red sharp of the curtains, of the blue of the belt of Cupid or the pale and milky tonalities of the Peau of the goddess, are combined with the perfect fluidity and femininity of the lines of the lengthened body, in a rare atmosphere of sensuality for the time. Work often intrigued owing to the fact that the face reflected in the Miroir seems to belong to a woman definitely older. For some, it is about one allusion to the vanity and the brevity of any beauty. Others see there only the effects of a bad restoration by a later painter.

The commentators raised several similarities stylistics with other works of Vélasquez going back to the same time, in particular the representation of Arachné . Without having the luxuriance of Venus to his mirror , the young person Arachné is depicted with a great sensitivity, as well in modelled his silhouette as in the effects of vaporous transparency of his dress. In each of the two tables, Vélasquez is useful with skill of the pretext of the Mythologie gréco-Roman to express her idea of the beauty of an young woman.

Ropemaking machines

detailed Article: the Ropemaking machines

One of last works of the artist, the Legend of Arachné , more commonly called the Ropemaking machines ( Las will hilanderas in Spanish), was completed in the neighborhoods of the year 1657. The fabric represents the interior of a royal factory of Tapisserie S. the table, filled with light, of air and of movement, raises colors chatoyantes and seems to have been the subject of considerable care on behalf of Vélasquez. As showed it Raphaël Mengs, this work appears not to be the fruit of a manual work, but of a pure abstract will. It concentrates all artistic know-how accumulated by the painter during his forty years long career. The plan in is however relatively simple, and rests on a varied combination of colors red S, green bluish, gray and black.

In 1660, the signature of a peace treaty awaited a long time between the France and the Spain was sealed by the Mariage of the infante Marie-Therese with Louis XIV. The ceremony was to proceed on the Island with Pheasants, a small marshy small island of the Bidassoa. Vélasquez was in charge of the decoration of the Spanish house and all esthetic arrangements. The painter seems to have struck the whole of the guests by the splendor of the costume which it raised the day of the festivities. He took again the road of Madrid the June 26th, but was struck of a Fièvre the July 31st. Feeling its end to approach, it wrote its last wills, making of his wife and her best friend Fuensalida, guard of the royal archives, his only executors. Diego Vélasquez died out the August 6th 1660, and was buried in the Fuensalida vault of the church San Juan. In the space of hardly eight days, his wife joined it in death. The church, unfortunately, was destroyed by the Napoleonean armed in 1811, so that the precise place of the vault is unknown today. The many debts accumulated by Vélasquez fed the tensions between the family of the painter and the Spanish Treasury until in 1666, before the death of Philippe IV finally does not make forget the litigation.

Modern adaptations

XIXe century

Until the 19th century, works of Diego Vélasquez remained rather little known in-outside Spain. It was thus necessary to await the initiative of Goya, in 1778, so that the tables of the Master contained in the royal collections are finally engraved. Many of its paintings left nevertheless country at the time of the Napoleonean wars, carried by French officers amateurs of Art, and circulated consequently through the Europe. In 1828, David Wilkie, in visit with Madrid, wrote that it felt in the presence of a new artistic power when it contemplated the fabrics of Vélasquez, at which it could detect affinities with certain British portraitists like Henry Raeburn. The artist was in particular struck by the impression of modernism emerging from works of the Spanish painter, who they are the portraits or the landscapes.

Since, the technique and the inimitable personality of its style were worth in Vélasquez a choice place in the European Histoire of art. One often regards it as the father of the Spanish school of Peinture. Although very dependant with all the Italian schools and the largest artists of its time, Vélasquez knew to resist the external influences and to develop its own stylistic kind.

Vélasquez was in painting one of the prevalent models of Edouard Manet, which is not pain-killer if it is known that this last operates the junction between the Réalisme and the Impressionnisme. Often describing as “painter of the painters”, Manet admired at its famous predecessor the recourse to very sharp colors, which particularly distinguish Vélasquez from its contemporaries, more attached to a rather academic Baroque. The influence of Vélasquez finds for example in the Player of fifre , where Manet is openly inspired by the portraits of dwarf S and Bouffon S carried out by the Spanish painter.

XXe century

The crucial step which constitutes Vélasquez in the Histoire of art is perceptible until today through the way in which the painters of the 20th century judged its work. It is Pablo Picasso which presented to its compatriot the most visible homage, when it entirely recomposed Ménines in 1957 in its style so characteristic cubist, while preserving with precision the original position of the characters. Although Picasso has fears that such a work is regarded only as one copy, this work of a considerable width (it was about its larger fabric since Guernica in 1937) very quickly was recognized and appreciated by the Spanish artistic mediums.

El Salvador Dalí, just like Picasso, wanted to pre-empt the celebration of tercentenary death of Vélasquez. It carried out in 1958 a work entitled Vélasquez painting the infante Marguerite . The use of the colors clearly refers to the style of the great painter. As well this fabric as that of Picasso caused not only to revive the interest around Vélasquez, but also to stimulate the appearance of new theories and schools artistic, such as for example the nuclear Mysticisme in the case of Dalí.

See too

Sources of the article

Janine Baticle, Velázquez: painter hidalgo , Gallimard, coll “Discovery-Painting”, 1989.
Yves Bottineau, Vélasquez , Citadel & Mazenot, coll “Headlights”, 1998.
Jonathan Brown, Velázquez , Beech, 1988.
Jose López-Rey, Velázquez - Catalog reasoned , Taschen, 2003.
Maurizio Marini, Velázquez , Gallimard, coll “Masters of art”, 1998.
Norbert Wolf, Diego Velázquez, 1599-1660 , Taschen, 2003

External bonds

Great painters: Velazquez - Biography, gallery of tables
Bibliography of Vélasquez on the Encyclopedia of the Agora

'' the voyage of Vélasquez in Italy '' - text of Jules Dumesnil
'' Velasquez '' - text of the writer Théophile Gautier
'' Velazquez: its successors, his technique '' - text of Emile Michel

Gallery of tables
Catalog of works of Vélasquez on artcyclopedia.com

Be-X-old: ДыеґаВэласкес Simple: Diego Velázquez

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