The Catalogue of the Louvre collection contains an imposing list of
seven works by the king of Spanish painters. Critical examination of
these pictures will, however, result in the elimination of all but
two that figure in the list. Velazquez, who was destined to stamp his
great personality on a whole generation of Spanish painters, but whose
art was little known in Northern Europe previous to the Peninsular
War, has exercised a paramount influence on modern art. He was born of
noble descent at Seville in June 1599. Although originally destined for
another profession, he showed such talent for art that he was allowed
to enter the studio of Francisco Herrera, of whose realistic tendencies
and rugged strength we have already had occasion to speak.
From his studio he passed into that of the cultured and erudite
Francisco Pacheco, whose artistic achievement at its best was far
in advance of his professed academic principles. Summoned to Madrid
in 1623 by the powerful Count Duke of Olivarez, Velazquez entered
the service of King Philip IV. Velazquez became his favourite Court
Painter, received other important offices and emoluments, and after
his return from his second visit to Italy in 1651—the first visit had
taken place in 1629—he was appointed _Aposentador del Rey_, a post
which approximately corresponds with that of Court-Marshal. He died on
the 6th of August 1660, from the results of fatigue and overwork in
supervising the arrangements for the betrothal of the Infanta Maria
Teresa to Louis XIV. at the Palace on the Isle of Pheasants, at Irun.
With the exception of the early _bodegones_ of his student-years and
a few rare excursions into the realm of religious and mythological
composition, Velazquez’s life-work, as conditioned by the patronage of
the king and the Court, was practically confined to portraiture. His
unrivalled greatness in this sphere is due to the perfect clearness
of his vision, which made him grasp the person or scene before his
eyes at a single glance, and transpose his impression to canvas with
undisturbed directness and completeness, and with an apparent disregard
of the means of expression. There is dignity and soberness in all his
portraits; perfect spacing; noble, firm contour; complete unity of
all the parts produced by the sense of ambient atmosphere. And never is
there the slightest hint of trick of hand, or mannerism, or painting by
recipe. Each picture is the result of close observation, recorded with
admirable directness and honesty. This supreme master of the painter’s
technique seemed to pay no attention to technique—or, at least, the
result is invariably so significant and so absorbingly interesting
that the spectator, unless he approaches the picture with deliberate
intention to probe its secret, never thinks of the technical means by
which life so convincing has been breathed on to the canvas.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXV.—VELAZQUEZ
(1599-1660)