Velazquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y (redirected from Diego Velázquez)

Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y 

Born June 4 or 5, 1599, in Seville; died Aug. 6, 1660, in Madrid. Spanish painter.

The son of an impoverished nobleman, Velázquez studied in Seville under F. de Herrera the Elder and F. Pacheco (1610-1616). In 1617 he received the title of master. He worked in Seville until 1623, where he painted the bodegones (Spanish bodegón—eating house)-—scenes of everyday life (Breakfast, c. 1617, Hermitage, Leningrad; The Water Carrier, c. 1620, Wellington Museum, London). The technique of painting with a thick coat of opaque paints, the contrasted illumination of figures placed in the foreground of the composition, and an interest in recording precisely the external qualities of nature link these works by Velázquez to the tradition of M. da Caravaggio. Velázquez sometimes introduced religious subjects as an independent motif in an everyday setting (Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, c. 1622, National Gallery, London). In his early works he was already turning to subjects that were new in Spanish painting and deftly characterizing popular types.

In mid-1623, Velázquez moved to Madrid, and in the same year he was appointed court painter. His artistic development was influenced in many ways by familiarity with the royal collections, which were rich in Italian painting (in particular, the works of Titian), meetings with P. P. Rubens, who was then in Spain (late 1628 to early 1629), and travel in Italy (late 1629 to early 1631). At the same time, his outlook on the world became more and more penetrating. Perceiving life with its real relationships, the artist broke boldly with the conventions of contemporary art. At that time he sought ways to create paintings with broad, general meaning. In the painting The Topers (Los Borrachos, before 1630, Prado, Madrid) Velázquez portrayed tramps carousing with Bacchus and fauns against a landscape background. There is not an insurmountable difference between the tramps, coarsened by life, and the classical god; they are linked by a general atmosphere of high spirits and closeness to the forces of nature. The Forge of Vulcan (1630, Prado) is imbued with a feeling of real life that is achieved by its coloring, which is close to nature, and the naturalness of its simplehearted heroes.

With the painting Surrender of Breda (1634, Prado), Velázquez laid the foundation for all European historic painting on the theme of contemporary reality. An actual episode in the war between Spain and the Netherlands gave him the opportunity to show the belligerents in all the complexity of their interrelationships. The rhythmic structure of the composition, the grouping of figures, and the forest of lances over the Spanish troops reveal the correlation of the forces that decided the battle’s outcome. The high degree of objectivity with which the participants in the event are characterized permits us to feel acutely the contrast between the refined Spaniards and the coarse Dutch, representatives of a young country and new social forces. The scene in which the keys to the city of Breda are transferred is the picture’s symbolic center, affirming the right of the vanquished to respect and of the victor to magnanimity.

During the same period Velázquez completed numerous portraits that make up an unusually varied gallery of representatives of Spanish society: equestrian parade portraits (Duke Olivares and Prince Balthasar Carlos, both 1634-35, Prado); half-length figures or busts of courtiers, friends, and pupils (Juan Mateos, c. 1632, Picture Gallery, Dresden; Duke Olivares, c. 1638, Hermitage; Lady With a Fan, c. 1648, Wallace Collection, London; má Juan Pareco, 1650, Radnor Collection, Salisbury); and a series of portraits of the royal children (Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna; Prado; and Louvre, Paris). Court life taught Velázquez to penetrate to the depths of human character hidden under the mask of arrogance and cold courtesy and capture the hidden life of the soul. He was restrained in his choice of means of representation and extremely reserved in the expression of emotion. In his portraits the artist gathered and synthesized his observations, exaggerating nothing, as if leaving judgment of his subject to others. He barely depicts accessories and rarely portrays gestures or movements. His background is usually neutral and acquires a special depth and airiness because of the relationship of color values: dark clothing directs the viewer’s attention to evenly illuminated faces. But under the artist’s superficial impassivity a deeply human attitude toward his surroundings is hidden. Therefore, his portraits are no more alike than living people. Although his color range is restrained, for each portrait he finds a uniquely refined combination of the most delicate shades of silver gray, olive, and gray brown, which gives the painting an individual emotional pitch.

Of particular interest are Velázquez’ portraits of court fools and dwarfs (those nicknamed Juan the Austrian, El Bobo from Coria, El Primo, the boy from Velescas, Sebastian Moro, and others; all 1631—48, Prado.) His wise, unprejudiced approach to life allowed him to see in these people, many of whom were deformed, their intrinsic human qualities. The unusually fine and carefully worked range of red and pink shades in the portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650, Doria-Pamfili Gallery, Rome) is the emotional key to the painting, whose cruel rectitude frightened the pope himself. This portrait was done by Velázquez during his second trip to Italy (end of 1648 to mid-1651). At the same time in Italy (or soon after his trip to Spain) he completed Venus and Cupid (1651, National Gallery, London). An unusual compositional device (the head of Venus is seen only in a mirror) gives a special freshness and poignancy to this portrayal of a nude female body—supple, slender, and full of charm and life. Also from this period are two landscapes (both of the Villa Medici, 1650-51, Prado) in which the artist, with a freshness and seeming sketchiness so unusual at that time, created integral images of nature.

In the last years of his life Velázquez painted two of his most famous pictures: Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor, 1656) and The Spinners (original title, The Myth of Arachne, 1657), both in the Prado. In Las Meninas the artist depicted the Infanta Margarita in the foreground, accompanied by maids of honor and dwarfs. Beside them, Velázquez painted himself at the easel working on a portrait of the royal couple, whose reflection can be seen in the mirror at the far end of the room. Velázquez divided space boldly in the composition: the king and queen seem to be in front of the picture, among its viewers; in turn, the viewers are found to be participants in the portrayed scene. A particular moment in the daily life of the court is presented here as a moment in the general flow of life, with all the complications of its intertwining and changing developments. Everything is penetrated by the trembling movement of silver air. The captivating beauty and picturesque diversity of reality is re-created in the general pearl gray coloration of the painting, with blue, pink, dark gray, and brown translucent paint applied with free strokes of the brush.

In another more buoyant style of painting is The Spinners, a scene in the royal tapestry studio with the figures of the spinners in the foreground. The court ladies in the background of the brightly lighted room are admiring the carpet, which represents the myth of Arachne, whose work surpassed that of the goddess Athena. The figures of the spinners—especially the young spinner on the right, full of energy and life—are wrapped in golden dust and are in sharp relief against the bright background. The beauty of the people and their creative force is the leitmotiv of the painting.

In Velázquez’ late works the unique qualities of his creative method revealed themselves most fully: the deepest comprehension of reality with all its richness and contradictions and the integrity of its pictorial re-creation, in which all the elements of artistic form become part of an indissoluble unity. He painted without preparatory sketches directly on the canvas, combining direct impressions of nature, rigorous planning of composition, free use of the brush, and integrity of an artistic system, thus achieving the impression of free improvisation while aiming for broad generalization. The creative work of Velázquez is the high point of Spanish 17th-century painting and among the most brilliant examples of the world’s realistic art.

REFERENCES

Malitskaia, K. M. Velaskes (1599-1660).Moscow-Leningrad, 1939.
Kaptereva, T. P. Velaskes. Moscow, 1961. (Bibliography.)
Kemenov, V. S. Kartiny Velaskesa.Moscow, 1969.
López-Rey, J. Velasquez: A Catalogue Raisonné of His Oeuvre. London, 1963.
Camón Aznar, J. Velázquez. Madrid, 1964.

T. P. KAPTEREVA