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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30316-8.txt b/30316-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65006e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/30316-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1368 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Velazquez, by S. L. Bensusan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Velazquez + +Author: S. L. Bensusan + +Release Date: October 22, 2009 [EBook #30316] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VELAZQUEZ *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + + MASTERPIECES + IN COLOUR + EDITED BY -- + T. LEMAN HARE + + + + VELAZQUEZ + + + + + +===================================================================== + +PLATE I.--THE INFANTE DON FERNANDO OF AUSTRIA (Frontispiece) + +This picture was painted for the Torre de la Parada, and shows King +Philip's younger brother in hunting costume. Velazquez seems to have +repainted a part of the canvas which is to be seen in the Prado, Madrid. + +[Illustration: Plate I.] + +===================================================================== + + + + +VELAZQUEZ + + +BY S. L. BENSUSAN + +ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT + +REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR + + + +[Illustration: Title page art] + + + +LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK + +NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO. + +1907 + + + + +CONTENTS + + INTRODUCTION + I. THE METHOD AND INFLUENCE OF VELAZQUEZ + II. THE PAINTER'S EARLY DAYS + III. VELAZQUEZ IN MADRID + IV. A RETROSPECT + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Plate + + I. The Infante Don Fernando of Austria . . . . . . . Frontispiece + In the Prado, Madrid + + II. Las Meniñas + In the Prado, Madrid + + III. The Infante Philip Prosper + In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna + + IV. The Infante Don Balthasar Carlos + In the Prado, Madrid + + V. Antonio the Englishman + In the Prado, Madrid + + VI. Admiral Adriano Pulido Pareja + In the National Gallery, London + + VII. Donna Mariana of Austria + In the Prado, Madrid + + VIII. The Princess Maria Theresa of Austria + In the Prado, Madrid + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +[Illustration: Velazquez] + +It is a curious truth that Spain in these days of her decline exercises +almost as much control over the mind of the world as she exercised over +its territories in the days of her great empire. Cervantes in +literature and Velazquez in art seem destined to secure for their +country a measure of immortality that throws into the background the +memory of such people as Carlos Quinto, Philip II., and those other +lesser lights who made the name of Spain respected or detested +throughout Europe and South America. If science and art are destined, +as some altruists hope, to unite the world in a bond that defies the +arbitrary boundaries made by rulers, then the name of Diego de Silva +Velazquez will stand high in the list of those whom the world delights +to honour, for people who are opposed diametrically on all questions of +politics and faith find ground upon which they may meet in security and +amity when they stand before the pictures of the great Spanish master. +And Cervantes, who used words instead of colours to express the life he +saw around him, would redeem Spain from insignificance if she had never +owned a colony, and had never sought to step beyond her own borders to +develop the arts of peace or follow the paths of war. + +Perhaps it would be hard to find more diverse opinions than those that +are heard in the studio. Artists see life through the medium of many +temperaments, they are notoriously intemperate in their enthusiasms. +There are schools of painting to suit every conviction, and the work +that one man would give his all to possess would not find hanging space +upon the wall controlled by another. But before Velazquez even artists +forget their controversies; he stands, like Bach and Beethoven in the +world of music, respected even by those who do not understand. No +controversy rages round him; he has marched unchallenged to the highest +place in men's regard. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE II.--LAS MENIÑAS + +This picture was painted about the year 1656, and, now in the Prado, is +considered one of the greatest works of the master. It presents the +Infanta Margarita attended by her maids of honour, while Velazquez +himself is shown painting the portraits of Philip IV. and his second +wife Mariana of Austria, who are seen reflected in the mirror. + +[Illustration: Plate II.] + +===================================================================== + +It is interesting to note that a reputation unrivalled in the world of +pictures is founded upon a comparatively small number of works. One of +his latest critics reduces the pictures of Velazquez now in existence +to eighty-nine, while acknowledging that some have disappeared from the +royal palaces of Spain and cannot be traced. This critic, Señor Don +Aureliano de Beruete--a connoisseur, a collector, and a worker in the +best interests of art--is perhaps a little too severe. He will not +admit to his catalogue a portrait like that of Admiral Adriano Pulido +Pareja, which, despite some inferior workmanship, can show considerable +claims to be regarded as genuine; but even if all the disputed ones +were admitted, and such a list as the late R. A. M. Stevenson published +were accepted without that far-seeing critic's own reserve, we should +not have as many pictures to represent the forty years of the artist's +life as Sir Joshua Reynolds was known to paint in a single year. +Velazquez has left very few drawings, and these are of small +importance; there are but two acknowledged engravings; and to limit +still further our sources of knowledge, the artist's correspondence +seems to have been lost; while the Memoirs which Velazquez was said to +have drawn up when Philip IV. sent the pictures to the Escorial are now +admitted by the best authorities to be the work of another man. + + + + +I + +THE METHOD AND INFLUENCE OF VELAZQUEZ + +In dealing with the life and work of the Spanish master, even in the +modest fashion of this little monograph, one must bear in mind the fact +that Velazquez, in the eyes of his contemporaries, was not only an +artist--he was a court painter; and pictures other than portraits were +of comparatively little importance to Philip IV. and his circle. Art +borrowed most of her importance in sixteenth and seventeenth century +Spain from the fact that she was the handmaid of Holy Mother Church. +Velazquez was a court official who chanced to be a clever +portrait-painter, and his promotion tended ever to take him further +away from his art. With the increase of state duties the claims upon +his time grew more and more difficult to meet, and, when he rose in the +closing years of his life to be Grand Marshal of the Palace, entrusted +with the ordering of state functions and missions to distinguished +foreigners, his art became entirely a secondary consideration. The +studio was no more than a place of refuge for the artist in the hours +when he might forget that he was an official. If Velazquez had not +been compelled to sacrifice the best part of forty years' activity to +the ridiculous formalities of court life, the world might have been +richer to-day by scores of pictures worthy to rank by the side of "Las +Meniñas" and the portrait of Pope Innocent X. The painter might have +found outside court circles far more inspiring sitters than those whom +he was compelled to paint, for it takes all that even a Velazquez can +give to a portrait to make a Philip IV., a Mariana of Austria, or even +an Isabella of Bourbon, reveal their dominant characteristics without +caricature; indeed one feels that the interest belongs to the picture +and not to the sitter. The success is one of tone, of harmony and of +line, of sure handling directed by an inward vision. + +Because of gifts lying beyond praise, the painter has preserved +seventeenth-century Spain for us as far as court circles represent it; +but among the many charges laid to the account of Philip IV. must be +added that of limiting the range and crippling the capacity of an +artist who cannot be placed second to any man. + +When we come to analyse his work we find that its qualities are not of +a sensational kind. Velazquez makes no appeal through the medium of +brilliant pigment; his great contemporary Rubens used colour in far +more striking fashion. Velazquez loved grey and silvery tints, and in +the years of his maturity understood relative values perfectly. He +knew, too, exactly how far he could go, and never made experiments in +search of qualities that were not his. Although he had a certain +quality of delicate imagination, he was a realist, and could not paint +without a model; he never acquired a mannerism, or applied to one +sitter the treatment that some artists seem to keep for types. Every +figure he set upon canvas has its own individuality, and, while +Velazquez, like other artists, had manners and methods that belong to +fixed periods of his life, it is not easy to set down in cold print an +analysis of the causes that make up his effects. He had no tricks; +everything that he did was clear, simple, and withal inimitable. +Hundreds of men have copied his pictures; none has been able to copy +his method. With his death his influence upon art ceased. His genius +lay buried in the grave with him, and did not suffer complete +resurrection until the nineteenth century was turning towards its +successor, though Raphael Mengs had done all he could to make his +merits known a hundred years before. Even to-day, we may be said to be +in the first stage of our enjoyment of the master's work. There are at +least fifty good books upon the subject of Velazquez' life and art, +written in three or four languages, and all published in the last half +century; there must be many more to come, for every generation sees +genius in the light of its own time. + +So much for literature. In art the painter has influenced very many +moderns. Manet, Courbet, Corot, Millet, Whistler, are among the men +whose work shines in the light of the Prado, and the list might be +prolonged indefinitely, for all earnest art workers go to Velazquez, +confident that whatever their aims and ideals, he will confirm and +strengthen what is best in them. They know, too, that they may return +again and again, and that the rich stores of guidance and encouragement +in the pursuit of ideals are as inexhaustible as the barrel of meal +that did not waste, and the cruse of oil that did not fail, in the +house of the widow of Zarephath. + + + + +II + +THE PAINTER'S EARLY DAYS + +In the years when Velazquez first saw the light, the power of Spain, +despite the shock it had received from British seamen, was the +dominating factor in European politics. Philip II. had come to the end +of a reign of more than forty years; Philip III. had just reached the +throne. The painter was not born in the atmosphere of court life, but +in the very Catholic city of Seville, then as now a fatal place for +those who cannot withstand the manifold temptations to lead a lazy +life. Happily for the boy his parents had not inherited the Seville +traditions; his father came from Oporto, which, being a seaport town, +has no lack of mental and physical activity. The spirit of painting +settled at a very early age upon young Diego de Silva Velazquez--the +second name by which he is universally known belonged to his mother's +family--almost before he was in his teens he was working in the studio +of Francisco de Herrera, architect and painter. The temperaments of +master and pupil could not fuse; there was sufficient trouble to lead +Don Juan Rodriguez to transfer his son's services to Francesco Pacheco, +painter, poet, professor, and withal a man of action and experience. +He knew much about contemporary art, encouraged a hopeful outlook upon +life, and enjoyed the respect of all men. Moreover his studio was the +meeting-place for many of the distinguished folk of the city. In the +very early years of their association Pacheco understood that his young +pupil was not like other lads, that he possessed an individuality that +could not be repressed or directed into the usual channels, and instead +of resenting this new element, he sought to direct it wisely and +kindly, thereby laying Velazquez under a debt of gratitude that the +painter never repudiated. Indeed there were stronger ties in the +making, for in the spring of 1618, when the young artist was on the +threshold of his wonderful career, Pacheco gave him his daughter Juana +for wife, "encouraged," he says, "by his virtues, his fine qualities, +and the hopes which his happy nature and great talent raised in me." +The kind old painter is not remembered to-day by his pictures, or even +by his "Book of Portraits of Illustrious Personages," and other +quaintly titled works from his pen. He lives because he helped to make +Velazquez a great painter, and recorded his impression of his +son-in-law's earliest works, the various "Bodegones," of which several +may be seen in London to-day. Others are in Berlin and St. Petersburg. +From these pictures of the secular life Velazquez passed to religious +subjects--"Christ in the House of Martha" (National Gallery) and the +"Adoration of the Magi" (Prado) belong to these early years. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE III.--THE INFANTE PHILIP PROSPER + +This picture hangs in the Imperial Gallery of Vienna. It is the work +of the painter's last period, and shows us the little son of Philip IV. +by his second wife. The lad died some two years after the picture was +painted; it has been restored, not too cleverly. + +[Illustration: Plate III.] + +===================================================================== + +In 1622, Velazquez, already the father of two children, made his first +journey to Madrid, and was allowed to visit the royal palaces. He did +not stay long in Castile, and his return to the capital was brought +about by the divinity that shapes men's ends. Philip III. was dead; +his son Philip IV. had selected as friend and adviser the Count +Olivarez, son of the Governor of the Alcazar in Seville. Olivarez had +many friends in the city that wears the "Modo" for its badge, in +recognition of unswerving loyalty to Alfonso the Learned. Doubtless he +had heard about the work of the young painter and had seen some +examples of it, and he wished to strengthen himself in the capital by +bringing accomplished men from his own city to official posts in +Madrid. So he sent for Velazquez, who journeyed a second time to the +north, now in the company of Pacheco, and on arrival there painted a +lost portrait of a Gentleman Usher, Fonseca by name. This picture did +for Velazquez what the portrait of Admiral Keppel did for Reynolds, and +before the excitement died away, the young King Philip IV. had deigned +to promise a sitting to the clever Sevillian. The success of the first +picture of Philip IV. (apparently the early one now in the Prado) was +so complete that the king ordered all existing portraits of himself to +be removed from the palace, and gave the painter an order of admission +to his service with a salary of about two pounds five shillings a +month! Under the skilled hands of the artist we are permitted to see +the tall, gloomy lad grow up a dull, reserved man, and we read in his +face a part at least of the causes of Spain's ultimate downfall. + + + + +III + +VELAZQUEZ IN MADRID + +Of the painter's work at court in those early days we hear a little +from Pacheco, but the story of the times is more or less obscure. A +clever portrait-painter was not a very interesting person in the eyes +of a Spanish grandee. He was classed with the court buffoons and +dwarfs who existed merely to amuse. Indeed, portraiture was not above +suspicion in the eyes of some fanatics, who held that art existed to +serve the Church, and should not seek secular employment. There are +documents extant showing that Velazquez received eight pounds for three +portraits, of which one is lost and the other two (Philip and the Count +of Olivarez) are in Spain. In 1625 the painter received a present of +three hundred ducats, which was followed by a pension of the same value +and a gift of free lodging, and, in 1627, by the appointment to the +post of Gentleman Usher. There is no doubt but that the king was +attached to his young court painter in a certain undemonstrative +fashion. Pacheco tells us that Philip used to visit the artist's +studio constantly, reaching it by way of the secret passages of which +the palace was full. + +The year 1628 marks an event of the first importance in the life of +Velazquez, for Peter Paul Rubens came on a diplomatic mission to +Madrid, charged by his government to pave the way to the conclusion of +peace between England and Spain. Rubens was then about fifty years +old. He stayed nine months in the Spanish capital, and, despite his +diplomatic duties and the gout, found time to paint an extraordinary +number of pictures, including five of Philip. He also copied the +king's Titians. Velazquez was entrusted by Philip with the work of +entertaining Rubens, and showing him the art treasures of Spain, and +the friendship that grew up rapidly between the two artists was +creditable to both, because Rubens, then at the zenith of his fame, +recognised the amazing gifts of the young Spaniard, and Velazquez never +allowed the brilliancy of the ambassador-artist to tempt him from the +paths that he had chosen to follow. There are some who think that +Rubens exerted a great influence upon his young friend's art, but we +cannot pretend to trace it. Rubens may have widened his mind; he could +not influence his hand or eye. + +Shortly after Rubens left Madrid, Velazquez completed his picture "Los +Borrachos," now in the Prado, and one of the acknowledged masterpieces +of his first style, though the tone is dark, and some of the figures do +not blend with their surroundings. In the late summer of the same year +Velazquez left Spain for Italy, in the company of Don Ambrosio Spinola, +who was going to take command of the Spanish forces. Soldier and +artist parted at Milan, and the latter went to Venice, where he stayed +with the Spanish ambassador and copied some of Tintoretto's pictures. +Thence he went by way of Ferrara to Rome, the honoured guest of a +relation of the Count of Olivarez, and he busied himself copying old +pictures and painting new ones. Like many of the artists who go for +the first time to Italy, he was influenced in some degree by Guido, who +was then living. He painted his own portrait, which is to be seen in +the Capitoline Museum, and went from Rome to Naples, returning to +Madrid in the early part of 1651. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE IV.--THE INFANTE DON BALTHASAR CARLOS + +This is one of the Prado pictures of King Philip's eldest son by his +first wife, the unfortunate little prince who died while he was yet a +boy. When this picture was painted Don Balthasar Carlos was six years +old. + +[Illustration: Plate IV.] + +===================================================================== + +It might be mentioned in this place that the painter's eldest daughter +was growing up, and that he married her three years later to one of his +pupils, the artist J. B. del Mazo. This clever artist, who was treated +by his master Velazquez as Velazquez had been treated by his master +Pacheco, is held by critics to be responsible for many pictures +generally ascribed to his father-in-law. There is a picture in the +Wallace Collection known as the "Lady with the Fan," which is thought +by no less a critic than Señor Beruete to represent the young Francesca +Velazquez, who became the Señora del Mazo when she was only fifteen +years old. + +Shortly after his return to Madrid, Velazquez came under the influence +of El Greco, who had died in 1614, and left some wonderful pictures +that may be seen to-day in Toledo. This fact is important, not that +the influence resulted in imitation, but because it was distinctly +inspiring, and Greco is a painter who is coming slowly before the +public. It cannot be doubted that his influence on artists through +Velazquez has been very deep and abiding, particularly in portraiture. + +In the years following the return from Italy, Velazquez painted some of +the pictures of the little prince Don Balthasar Carlos, the king's son, +who was born in 1629, and died in 1646, the year of his betrothal to +Mariana of Austria. There are many pictures of this interesting lad +who, had he lived, might have done so much to save his country. The +earliest was painted as soon as Velazquez returned from Italy, and is +at present in Boston. The next in date would seem to be the one in the +Wallace Collection, and following this comes the well-known picture of +Don Balthasar in hunting dress, now in the Prado, the one with the +small greyhound seen on the right, just coming into the canvas. Then +we have the famous picture of the young prince on his spirited +Andalusian pony, which is perhaps the most popular of all; and +succeeding that in the order of the painting comes the portrait that, +in the writer's opinion, is the best of the series. It hangs in the +Imperial Museum in Vienna, and was painted when the prince was about +eleven years old. Doubtless there are other portraits of the ill-fated +boy, whose features seem to suggest that he had inherited from his +mother some of the qualities that his father lacked, and that had he +been spared to succeed his father in 1665, he would have handled +affairs with vigour and intelligence. + +In 1638 Philip's daughter Maria Teresa was born, and the history of the +artist's life in Madrid becomes uneventful or lost. Probably on +account of the increasing unrest abroad and the decline of the Spanish +fortunes, Velazquez' earliest patron, the Count of Olivarez, was +disgraced in 1643, the year in which Condé helped to break the power of +Spain at Rocroi. + +Although the condition of the Spanish Empire was very unfavourable, and +Philip IV. must have known long hours of anxiety and unrest, there is +no reason to believe that he withdrew his company or his favour from +the best beloved of his court painters. Spinola had taken Breda from +Justin of Nassau, and the surrender was promptly immortalised by +Velazquez in the picture "Las Lanzas," which draws so many pilgrims to +Madrid to-day. It was painted for the palace of Buen Retiro, and +curiously enough--since it records one of the few successes of Spain in +the Low Countries--the subject passed out of men's memory, and for many +years nobody knew why the artist had painted it, or what it was all +about. Some time between the painting of this picture and the fall of +Olivarez, Murillo came to Madrid and became a pupil of Velazquez, who +had just received a grant of five hundred ducats to be paid annually by +order of the king. In 1644 Velazquez accompanied Philip on a journey +through Aragon, and two or three years later he was appointed Inspector +of Buildings, a post involving much tedious work, and helping to keep +the painter from his studio. He seems to have bestowed a certain +amount of labour on portraits painted by other men, in order to bring +them into harmony with the collection that Philip was making. It is +difficult to deal with this matter within limited space because the +details are distinctly controversial, but it is as well to remember +that some of the portraits attributed to Velazquez in the Prado Gallery +are of people who were dead before Velazquez was painting, so they +could not have sat for him; and in the days of Philip IV. it was +considered no disgrace for a man to repaint another artist's canvases. +Moreover, a painter to the court of Spain was not supposed to carry an +uneasy conscience about with him. It was his duty to obey orders and +to accept from his superiors as much guidance and direction as they +were gracious enough to give him. + +In 1649 the king granted Velazquez permission to return to Italy in +order to find pictures for a Royal Academy of Fine Art to be +established in Madrid. By this time Philip was a widower, though he +was on the point of marrying his niece, Mariana of Austria. She had +been affianced to the Infante Don Balthasar Carlos, but he had been +dead for three years, and the Spanish throne was without an heir. +Velazquez visited Genoa, Venice, Milan, and Padua, and brought back +pictures by Veronese and Tintoretto. Rome and Naples were revisited, +and the famous portrait of Pope Innocent X., of which one copy is in +St. Petersburg, and the other in the Doria Palace in Rome, was painted. +The former is a bust and a study; the latter is a three-quarter length, +and is painted with a wonderful blend of red and white. It was copied +by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who declared that it was the finest work he had +seen in Rome. What would he have thought of the later masterpieces by +the same hand? The portrait was copied by other men too, and there is +no doubt that the copies were in some cases sold for originals. + +By the time Velazquez returned to Madrid in 1651, at the urgent request +of his royal master, the court of Spain was _en fête_. Philip's wife, +to whom he had been married two years, was only seventeen, and required +amusement. Functions of every sort, excursions, entertainments on a +most sumptuous scale, were the order of the day, and because Velazquez +was now at the summit of his achievement, because he could paint +pictures that will endure as long as men care for art, it is difficult +indeed to forgive Philip IV. for making him Marshal of the Palace. To +be sure the post was well paid, the salary being about £400 a year with +lodging in the Treasure House, but the duties were endless. The king's +action was on a par with the custom that prevails in our own Foreign +Office, of sending a man who understands China thoroughly to serve the +country in Peru, and one who has mastered Russian politics to Portugal. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE V.--ANTONIO THE ENGLISHMAN + +This was one of the dwarfs in the service of the king. His is one of +the last portraits painted by Velazquez. The figure is life size, and +hangs in the Prado at Madrid. + +[Illustration: Plate V.] + +===================================================================== + +Happily Velazquez, for all that he was regarded in Madrid as a rather +lazy man, found time when he was Marshal of the Palace to paint the +best of all his portraits. He was honoured by Queen Mariana of +Austria, the king's second wife, who sat for him on several occasions, +and the results may be seen in Paris, Vienna, New York, and Madrid. +Some of the portraits, painted without a suspicion of flattery, show +the absurd head-dress, the false hair, and the extraordinary crinoline +that were worn at the time, in all their ugliness, and force us to see +how great was the distance lying between the royal house and any sense +of beauty. Velazquez was not perhaps very happy with this work, +because Nature had endowed Philip's wife with a face that was almost as +dull and unresponsive to emotion as that of her lord and master; but +after a time children were born, and the court painter had a more +sympathetic task. He has left portraits that are quite charming of the +Infanta Margarita and the Infante Philip Prosper; he painted both of +the children while they were very young. In point of fact, neither +lived to grow up; doubtless they would have been uninteresting enough +if they had been spared. The Infanta Margarita is to be seen in +Vienna, in Paris, and in Madrid, and she of course is the centre of the +famous picture, "Las Meniñas." Prince Prosper was painted by +Velazquez, when no more than two years old. There were two other +children, Prince Ferdinand and Prince Carlos II., but the former was no +more than a year old when Velazquez died, and Carlos was unborn. Of +the four children born to Philip IV. by his second wife, three died +young. + +In the last years of his life, when the pressure of court duties and +the ill-will of highly placed fools must have been hard to bear, +Velazquez found time to paint some of his greatest masterpieces. "The +Maids of Honour" ("Las Meniñas"), "The Spinners" ("Las Hilanderas"), +"Æsop," "Menippus," "The Coronation of the Virgin," and the "Venus with +the Mirror," are all the ripe fruit of the painter's last decade. His +art had matured; adversity had thrown him back upon his work; it was +the solace of the hours that were not claimed by absurd official +duties. Who shall say that the scant consideration he received from +parasites and courtiers was an unmixed evil? The men who despised the +painter because Philip favoured him may have helped to mould his +character, may have enabled him to detach himself completely from his +own official character when he could lay aside the garb of office and +turn to his beloved canvases once again. The portraits of Philip in +his last years, those of his second wife and her children, those of the +dwarfs too, belong to the years between 1651 and 1660. + +It was a custom of the unhealthy and depressing Spanish court in which +the queen lived in an armour of corsets and crinoline, and might not be +touched by any of her faithful subjects upon pain of death--the court +in which the king was compelled to preside at the _autos da fé_--to +keep dwarfs as playthings. Perhaps because they were ugly and deformed +they came quite naturally into the court environment. The earliest +portrait of Don Balthasar Carlos shows him in company with a dwarf, and +there were about the court many other unfortunate creatures whom +Velazquez painted between 1650 and 1659. + +There is more than a suspicion in the minds of many of his biographers +that the half-concealed contempt with which Velazquez was regarded in +court circles left him small choice of company; that he was rated with +dwarfs and outcasts because he worked with his hands; and of course no +hidalgo, who was a perfect master of the art of time-wasting, could +take seriously any low-blooded creature who earned his right to live by +working. If Velazquez had been on the same footing as Rubens--had he +enjoyed the same position that Goya, with no greater official +appointment, was to hold a little more than a century after his +death--we may presume that the dwarfs would not have been painted, and +that Velazquez' art would have been given to the service of the +blue-blooded gentlemen who were making as big a muddle of Spanish +interests as their country's worst enemies could desire. One hesitates +to say that they would have been less interesting sitters, because we +know that nobody, however dull and stupid in appearance, could fail to +become interesting at the hands of the painter. It is fair to +remember, too, in defence of the Spanish attitude, that the years were +given not to the arts of peace but to those of war; that leisure was +scanty, intrigue unceasing, and the austerity of life was made greater +by the strong and merciless grip of the Church. Formality and +superstition marched hand in hand in a court whose ruler, if we may +judge by his portraits, had forgotten how to smile. Then again, the +atmosphere of the Madrid court, for all its dulness and secrecy and +unhealthy ways, was not as it became under Charles III., when Godoy +played the part of Count Olivarez, and the Countess Benavente, the +Duchess of Alba, and other women as frail as they were beautiful, did +not hesitate to indulge in open intrigue with the king's painter. Turn +to the canvases of Velazquez and you will not find a woman who was +fascinating enough to have been worth the trouble and danger of an +intrigue. The wives of Philip IV. could not but have been virtuous, +and would have had but small sympathy with pretty women. To be sure +Philip IV. had many mistresses, but he did not ask his court painter to +record their beauty. + +Before Velazquez returned to Madrid from his second visit to Italy, he +seems to have painted the portrait of the dwarf known as "El Primo," +now in the Prado. This man, known in private life as Don Louis de +Hacedo, accompanied Philip on a tour, and he seems to have been a +studious person, because the artist has depicted him with book, pen, +and paper, and given him a refined expression. The others have little +to redeem their ugliness and deformity. The child of Vallecas seems to +be the dwarf who figures with Don Balthasar Carlos in the first picture +that Velazquez painted of the unfortunate young prince, the one that is +now in America. He has grown a little older and a little more ugly in +the canvas that is devoted entirely to his portrait; he does not wear +good clothes, but a coarse green coat with stockings to match. The +Idiot of Coria is also dressed in green, though his garments are a +little richer, but Don Antonio seems to have been a person of some +importance. He is pictured in the Prado standing beside a beautiful +mastiff almost as big as himself, and he wears a ruddy brown dress +worked with gold. He carries a large plumed hat in his hand. +Sebastian de Morra, who sits facing the audience, has one of the most +wonderful heads ever set on canvas by the artist. This dwarf too is +dressed in the green costume that would seem to have been worn by the +dwarfs attached to the court of Spain. In addition to the little +company of dwarfs there were buffoons at the court, and of these +Velazquez painted Pablillos, who is known as "the comedian," and Don +Juan of Austria, whose portrait is a triumph of harmony in colour, the +pink of mantle and stockings contrasting admirably with black doublet +and cape. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE VI.--ADMIRAL ADRIANO PULIDO PAREJA + +This picture may be seen in the National Gallery. It is signed and +dated 1639, and was purchased from the Longford Castle Collection in +1890. Señor Beruete holds a strong opinion that it was not painted by +Velazquez. + +[Illustration: Plate VI.] + +===================================================================== + +In the last years the painter seems to have gone a little further down +in the social scale in search of his sitters, for the "Æsop" is a +beggar, and "Menippus" is no better. To all these sufferers and +outcasts Velazquez responded with a sympathy that is not less clearly +revealed than the technique that gives so much enduring delight to +artists the world over. + +In the final decade of the painter's life Philip seems to have given +him no more than two sittings. Perhaps the artist's "Mars" and his +"Venus with the Mirror" gave offence in Madrid, where the nude was only +accepted if it was painted by some artist who had won his fame outside +the Iberian Peninsula. The whole trend of life in the court of Mariana +of Austria was opposed to the presentation of the nude in art. The two +late pictures of Philip, of which the one is in the Prado and the +second in our National Gallery, are quite the most finished of all his +studies of his royal master. The face, free from even a suggestion of +human interest or enthusiasm, has no emotion whatsoever save +disillusionment and sadness. The spectator gets a suggestion that life +has resolved itself into a long series of formal duties and formal +enjoyments, and that neither suffices to make it worth living. Duty to +the world at large and to the vast empire slipping from his grasp seems +to be all that holds Philip; and when we consider that he had lost his +first wife and her promising son, and of his children by his second +wife one or two were dead already; that dissipation and anxiety had +sapped his energies, and superstition had crabbed his intelligence; it +is not strange that the face should be as it is. + +In 1658 Philip conferred upon Velazquez the knighthood of Santiago, and +money was deposited on his behalf by a friend who understood the +painter's financial straits to pay for the inquiries relating to his +genealogy. In spite of the king's wishes, the Council appointed to +inquire into the antecedents of the painter refused to admit him, +though Velazquez supplied many proofs that his blood was pure and his +origin honourable. At last, Philip applied to the Pope Alexander VII. +for a dispensation in the artist's favour, realising that the Vatican +was a Court whose jurisdiction was unlimited in its scope. The Pope +was complaisant: he could hardly be otherwise to Philip IV.; he sent a +brief that enabled Velazquez, after long delays, to obtain the much +coveted order. The story that Philip bestowed it upon Velazquez as a +reward for the picture "Las Meniñas" is one of the pretty fables that +must be disregarded, and it seems likely that Philip only exerted +himself on his painter's behalf because he wished him to superintend +the arrangements for the festivities that were to celebrate the +marriage of the Infanta Maria Teresa with Louis XIV. If we may read +character in physiognomy, there is little risk that Philip would have +behaved generously without cause. + +Velazquez left Madrid for Irun, on the Franco-Spanish frontier, in +April 1660. The work was harassing; he was not a _persona grata_ with +his colleagues, and none sought to lighten his burdens. He returned to +the capital at the end of June, when Madrid is not fit to live in, and +was taken ill a month later. Hard and unremitting labour, the folly +and bitter opposition of men who were not worthy to clean his palette, +the inconveniences and delays of travel in Spain, and the tender +mercies of several Spanish doctors of repute, seem to have combined, +with a bad attack of fever, to bring a troubled life to its closing +scene. The end came on the 6th of August 1660, when, to quote Señor +Beruete, "he delivered up his soul to God, who had created him to be +the admiration of the world." + +The body was decorated with the ornaments of the knights of Santiago +and buried in the parish church of St. John the Baptist. Within a week +his devoted wife, Juana de Pacheco Velazquez, followed him to a rest +that no ceremonial of the Spanish court could disturb. + +Strange as it may seem to those who know nothing of Spain, the petty +worries and vexations to which Velazquez had been subjected did not +cease with his death. It was decided by the authorities that the +thousand ducats paid to the dead painter for superintending the works +of the Alcazar must be returned, and in order that the claim might be +met, the contents of the artist's studio and some of his furniture +would seem to have been seized. King Philip recorded his gracious +distress at this decision, but did nothing to overrule it. + +Litigation followed, and after some years the claim to the thousand +ducats was withdrawn by the authorities, the affairs of the master were +wound up for all time, and the stigma of debt was removed from the +memory of a man who never received a tithe of his deserts. + +Philip IV. took Juan del Mazo, the painter's son-in-law, to be court +painter in Velazquez' place, and the appointment is worth noting, +because it is to this worthy man's wonderful facility for echoing his +father-in-law's style that we owe the presence of so many imitations in +the world's public galleries and private collections. Some of these +clever copies of lost pictures have remained unchallenged until recent +years, and whether this be a tribute to the capacity of del Mazo or a +reflection upon the capacity of critics, is a question lying beyond the +scope of this little book. But it is not difficult to understand that +the renown of Velazquez was on the increase for a few years after his +death, and that Mazo, who was clever and poorly paid, and had a sincere +respect for his father-in-law, should have remembered that there is no +greater flattery than imitation. + + + + +IV + +A RETROSPECT + +It is in no spirit of extravagance that one ventures to say that the +life of Velazquez was a long and tragic struggle against surroundings +detrimental to the full and natural expression of his genius, nor is it +surprising that the people who had followed his career with +indifference saw very little matter for comment when he died. There +were a few useless and pompous ceremonies associated with his +obsequies, and Spain went on with the daily task, the common round, +unconscious of her loss. So many material possessions were passing +from hands too weak to hold or to administer them that the death of an +artist could not be noticed. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE VII.--DONNA MARIANA OF AUSTRIA + +This picture was brought from the Escorial to the Prado in 1845. The +lady was the second wife of Philip IV., and would have been the wife of +Don Balthasar Carlos had he lived. + +[Illustration: Plate VII.] + +===================================================================== + +Fair-minded critics may hesitate to say with Spain's enemies that +civilisation ends with the Pyrenees, but it is certain that the Spanish +attitude towards life has differed from that of other countries to an +extent that has left indelible impressions upon art and literature. +Velazquez carried a little of the Andalusian sun to Castile, but the +heavy cloud that settled upon the Spanish court speedily obscured it. +Life for the painter was an affair of constant struggle against +financial and social difficulties, of endless work for unresponsive +masters; and the labour was not lightened by any of the associations +that helped the great masters of the Italian School who had some share +of light and honour. The funereal pomp of the Spanish court; the +strange climatic conditions of Madrid, where you may pass in a moment +from a blaze of sun that scorches to a blast of icy wind that strikes a +fatal blow at the lungs; the hard and unattractive landscape; the +proud, cruel, and impassive people who cannot even feign an interest in +such affairs as art or letters, all served to leave their impression +upon the painter's work. We cannot imagine that any artist who worked +in Madrid in the seventeenth century could become a colourist after the +manner of the Venetians; he would not see the colour unless he went to +Catalonia or Andalusia and entered into their stirring national life. +Then again Spain was influenced by the Moors, and eastern art is more +concerned with harmony than colouring, more concerned to blend neutral +tints than present rich tones. + +The writer has seen many pictures in the studios of modern Madrid that +are inspired directly by the Italians, for nowadays Spanish artists +flock to Italy, where they learn to imitate the Venetian colour +schemes, and to become third-rate echoes of old masters. There are a +few men who paint interesting pictures in Spain to-day--Pradilla and +Carbonero are among the best; but Spain does not hold a great artist. +The last of all died in exile in Bordeaux in the early days of the last +century, and left his gifts to the French School of Manet. + +Velazquez could never have become a flamboyant colourist. A few of the +pictures in the Prado have some reds and pinks; for example, "Las +Hilanderas," in which there is a red curtain, and the picture of Philip +on horseback, in which the king wears a pink scarf. There are high +colours in "The Coronation of the Virgin" and a few others, but as a +rule Velazquez wrought with a subdued palette, and sought to weave +harmonies in grey and silver. Bright colours are an expression of the +joy of life, and this was unknown to the Spaniards of Castile. Murillo +has colour, but then he was always an Andalusian. Just as Velazquez +borrowed very little from his sitters and gave a great deal, so he +claimed next to nothing from the primary colours, and he gave a colour +sense that is indescribably beautiful to silver and grey. This was his +deliberate choice and judgment, but it is impossible to forget that +surroundings and associations must have had a great deal to do with it. +Men who live lives that are complete in the fullest sense of the term +have a natural craving for glowing hues, and may find Velazquez dull if +they come to the Prado from the Academy of Venice; but unless their +tastes have become wholly vitiated, unless their eyes are suffering +from a surfeit of light, they will soon learn to find that their best +beloved masters would not bear transplanting. They belong to the soil +of the country they worked in, while Velazquez, like Rembrandt, can +travel to any climate, and shine with unclouded glory in any +atmosphere. It is impossible to imagine that Rubens could have painted +with the palette that served Velazquez, but the greater of the two men +has given the world an invaluable lesson in appreciation, and because +Nature is full of exquisite colour harmonies that are quite subdued in +tone it is well that we should have been taught to appreciate them. +Velazquez himself declared that Raphael did not please him, but Titian +did; he found in him the greatest of all the Venetians. And yet it is +hard to say that he took anything from the admired master, because with +Velazquez admiration and imitation are things apart. He did not even +imitate El Greco, the painter whose influence upon the world of art is +not yet fully acknowledged or understood, and he did not copy Rubens, +whose splendours would have dazzled a weaker man. + +Velazquez merely saw certain truths in Greco's handling of portraiture, +and accepted them. Throughout his life he made a steady improvement in +the quality of the work done, but the changes came through +introspection rather than from any outside influence. + +His pictures are divided by many critics into three styles, which may +be divided roughly by his visits to Italy. In the early days the paint +on his canvas was very thick, the shadows were heavy, the composition +was not always conclusive or well devised. The one quality was that +irreproachable throughout all the years was the drawing, which was +always masterly. From the days of the early "Bodegones" down to the +"Meniñas" nobody could find a picture in which his drawing is obviously +at fault; although in speaking of Velazquez it is of course difficult +to separate drawing from painting. As he grew up the sense of +composition and colour harmony became stronger and stronger, and the +faults passed. At the same time, Velazquez was a severe critic of his +own work, and a careful examination shows that even those pictures to +which no suspicion can attach were retouched and corrected in the +making. + +In this country one secures little more than a glimpse of the master's +work. The National Gallery has nearly a dozen pictures, but there are +certain questions about the authenticity of some of them, and the +Philip in the Dulwich Gallery is rather more than doubtful. The +Wallace Collection has a few beautiful examples of Velazquez, and after +that there are about fifty private owners of pictures that cannot be +readily seen. Perhaps a considerable proportion of these works would, +if subjected to very careful scrutiny, reveal themselves as copies by +Mazo or others. In France there are half-a-dozen fine pictures in the +Louvre. Germany can show some in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich; Holland +has one or two. There are less than a dozen in all Italy. The +Hermitage Gallery in St. Petersburg has five or six, and Vienna about +twice as many; but to see Velazquez one must go to Madrid. The Museo +del Prado has over sixty of the artist's pictures, and though a small +proportion of these have scarcely a touch of the master's hand, all his +greatest work has found a resting-place here. Las Lanzas, Las +Hilanderas, Las Meniñas, Philip IV. on horseback, Don Balthasar Carlos +on his pony, the Crucifixion, the Coronation of the Virgin, the Dwarfs, +Æsop, Menippus--all these are to be seen in the Prado; the greater +number being in the Salon of Isabella, an octagonal room in which one +may spend long hours. The writer, on the occasion of his last visit to +Madrid, made a note of the number of visitors to the famous octagonal +room during the four mornings he spent there. In the course of some +twelve hours the room was visited by some twelve people! It is only +fair to say that it was not in the tourist season; the month was June, +and nobody stayed in Madrid from choice. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE VIII.--THE PRINCESS MARIA THERESA OF AUSTRIA + +This daughter of Philip IV. became Queen of France. The picture was +painted when she was about ten years of age, and consequently belongs +to the last period of Velazquez' work. It was hung in the Alcazar +until some time in the eighteenth century, when it was transferred to +the Prado. + +[Illustration: Plate VIII.] + +===================================================================== + +There are pictures by Velazquez to be seen in Madrid outside the Prado, +but for the most part they are in private houses, and are not +accessible to everybody. Seville boasts half-a-dozen canvases by her +greatest painter, and there are a few elsewhere in Spain; but it may be +said that those who know the Salon of Isabella have seen Velazquez at +his best, and that those who have seen his other pictures and have not +visited the Prado, do not know Velazquez at all. + +Perhaps there are pleasant surprises yet in store for the art world, +for many pictures are still untraced. Doubtless some have been +destroyed by fire and others are in half-forgotten lumber rooms of +palaces and galleries from which they will be gathered in due course. +Velazquez owes a large part of his popularity in Spain to-day to the +measure of appreciation he has secured beyond the borders. Every +second-hand dealer in Madrid or Seville has a "genuine Murillo" to +offer the stranger. It is worth a thousand pounds; but as the dealer +is an honest man, he will sell it first for two hundred, then for one, +and finally for fifteen or even ten. But no second-hand dealer shows a +"genuine Velazquez." He knows that at best it could only appeal to +artists, and he knows them for strange folk endowed with much +enthusiasm, little money, and an embarrassing measure of knowledge of +the methods by which genuine old masters are created to supply a +long-felt want. + + + + +The plates are printed by BEMROSE DALZIEL, LTD., Watford + +The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh + + + + + + + IN THE SAME SERIES + + ARTIST. AUTHOR. + + VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. + REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. + ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. + GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. + BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. + ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. + BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. + FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. + REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. + LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. + RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. + HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. + TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. + LUINI. JAMES MASON. + TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + + _Others in Preparation._ + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Velazquez, by S. L. Bensusan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VELAZQUEZ *** + +***** This file should be named 30316-8.txt or 30316-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/3/1/30316/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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L. Bensusan +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.plate {font-size: 80% ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 15% ; + margin-right: 15% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +.pagenum { position: absolute; + left: 1%; + font-size: 95%; + text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Velazquez, by S. L. Bensusan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Velazquez + +Author: S. L. Bensusan + +Release Date: October 22, 2009 [EBook #30316] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VELAZQUEZ *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover art" BORDER="2" WIDTH="502" HEIGHT="681"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4> +MASTERPIECES<BR> +IN COLOUR<BR> +EDITED BY —<BR> +T. LEMAN HARE<BR> +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +VELAZQUEZ<BR> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +PLATE I.—THE INFANTE DON FERNANDO OF AUSTRIA (Frontispiece) +</P> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +This picture was painted for the Torre de la Parada, and shows King +Philip's younger brother in hunting costume. Velazquez seems to have +repainted a part of the canvas which is to be seen in the Prado, Madrid. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-frontt"></A> +<CENTER> +<A HREF="images/img-front.jpg"> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-frontt.jpg" ALT="Plate I." BORDER="2" WIDTH="455" HEIGHT="770"> +</A> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +VELAZQUEZ +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +BY S. L. BENSUSAN +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT +<BR> +REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-title"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-title.jpg" ALT="Title page art" BORDER="" WIDTH="340" HEIGHT="308"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK +<BR> +NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO. +<BR> +1907 +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#intro">INTRODUCTION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THE METHOD AND INFLUENCE OF VELAZQUEZ</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">THE PAINTER'S EARLY DAYS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">VELAZQUEZ IN MADRID</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">A RETROSPECT</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">Plate</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-frontt">The Infante Don Fernando of Austria</A><BR> + <SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%">In the Prado, Madrid</SPAN> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">Frontispiece</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-014t">Las Meniñas</A><BR> + <SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%"> In the Prado, Madrid</SPAN> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> + <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-024t">The Infante Philip Prosper</A><BR> + <SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%"> In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna</SPAN> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> + <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-034t">The Infante Don Balthasar Carlos</A><BR> + <SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%"> In the Prado, Madrid</SPAN> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> + <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-044t">Antonio the Englishman</A><BR> + <SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%"> In the Prado, Madrid</SPAN> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> + <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-054t">Admiral Adriano Pulido Pareja</A><BR> + <SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%"> In the National Gallery, London</SPAN> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> + <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-064t">Donna Mariana of Austria</A><BR> + <SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%"> In the Prado, Madrid</SPAN> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> + <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#img-074t">The Princess Maria Theresa of Austria</A><BR> + <SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%"> In the Prado, Madrid</SPAN> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="intro"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INTRODUCTION +</H3> + +<A NAME="img-009"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-009.jpg" ALT="Velazquez" BORDER="" WIDTH="296" HEIGHT="301"> +</CENTER> + +<P> +It is a curious truth that Spain in these days of her decline exercises +almost as much control over the mind of the world as she exercised over +its territories in the days of her great empire. Cervantes in +literature and Velazquez in art seem destined to secure for their +country a measure of immortality that throws into the background the +memory of such people as Carlos Quinto, Philip II., and those other +lesser lights who made the name of Spain respected or detested +throughout Europe and South America. If science and art are destined, +as some altruists hope, to unite the world in a bond that defies the +arbitrary boundaries made by rulers, then the name of Diego de Silva +Velazquez will stand high in the list of those whom the world delights +to honour, for people who are opposed diametrically on all questions of +politics and faith find ground upon which they may meet in security and +amity when they stand before the pictures of the great Spanish master. +And Cervantes, who used words instead of colours to express the life he +saw around him, would redeem Spain from insignificance if she had never +owned a colony, and had never sought to step beyond her own borders to +develop the arts of peace or follow the paths of war. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps it would be hard to find more diverse opinions than those that +are heard in the studio. Artists see life through the medium of many +temperaments, they are notoriously intemperate in their enthusiasms. +There are schools of painting to suit every conviction, and the work +that one man would give his all to possess would not find hanging space +upon the wall controlled by another. But before Velazquez even artists +forget their controversies; he stands, like Bach and Beethoven in the +world of music, respected even by those who do not understand. No +controversy rages round him; he has marched unchallenged to the highest +place in men's regard. +</P> + +<HR> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +PLATE II.—LAS MENIÑAS +</P> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +This picture was painted about the year 1656, and, now in the Prado, is +considered one of the greatest works of the master. It presents the +Infanta Margarita attended by her maids of honour, while Velazquez +himself is shown painting the portraits of Philip IV. and his second +wife Mariana of Austria, who are seen reflected in the mirror. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-014t"></A> +<CENTER> +<A HREF="images/img-014.jpg"> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-014t.jpg" ALT="Plate I." BORDER="2" WIDTH="559" HEIGHT="767"> +</A> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR> + +<P> +It is interesting to note that a reputation unrivalled in the world of +pictures is founded upon a comparatively small number of works. One of +his latest critics reduces the pictures of Velazquez now in existence +to eighty-nine, while acknowledging that some have disappeared from the +royal palaces of Spain and cannot be traced. This critic, Señor Don +Aureliano de Beruete—a connoisseur, a collector, and a worker in the +best interests of art—is perhaps a little too severe. He will not +admit to his catalogue a portrait like that of Admiral Adriano Pulido +Pareja, which, despite some inferior workmanship, can show considerable +claims to be regarded as genuine; but even if all the disputed ones +were admitted, and such a list as the late R. A. M. Stevenson published +were accepted without that far-seeing critic's own reserve, we should +not have as many pictures to represent the forty years of the artist's +life as Sir Joshua Reynolds was known to paint in a single year. +Velazquez has left very few drawings, and these are of small +importance; there are but two acknowledged engravings; and to limit +still further our sources of knowledge, the artist's correspondence +seems to have been lost; while the Memoirs which Velazquez was said to +have drawn up when Philip IV. sent the pictures to the Escorial are now +admitted by the best authorities to be the work of another man. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE METHOD AND INFLUENCE OF VELAZQUEZ +</H3> + +<P> +In dealing with the life and work of the Spanish master, even in the +modest fashion of this little monograph, one must bear in mind the fact +that Velazquez, in the eyes of his contemporaries, was not only an +artist—he was a court painter; and pictures other than portraits were +of comparatively little importance to Philip IV. and his circle. Art +borrowed most of her importance in sixteenth and seventeenth century +Spain from the fact that she was the handmaid of Holy Mother Church. +Velazquez was a court official who chanced to be a clever +portrait-painter, and his promotion tended ever to take him further +away from his art. With the increase of state duties the claims upon +his time grew more and more difficult to meet, and, when he rose in the +closing years of his life to be Grand Marshal of the Palace, entrusted +with the ordering of state functions and missions to distinguished +foreigners, his art became entirely a secondary consideration. The +studio was no more than a place of refuge for the artist in the hours +when he might forget that he was an official. If Velazquez had not +been compelled to sacrifice the best part of forty years' activity to +the ridiculous formalities of court life, the world might have been +richer to-day by scores of pictures worthy to rank by the side of "Las +Meniñas" and the portrait of Pope Innocent X. The painter might have +found outside court circles far more inspiring sitters than those whom +he was compelled to paint, for it takes all that even a Velazquez can +give to a portrait to make a Philip IV., a Mariana of Austria, or even +an Isabella of Bourbon, reveal their dominant characteristics without +caricature; indeed one feels that the interest belongs to the picture +and not to the sitter. The success is one of tone, of harmony and of +line, of sure handling directed by an inward vision. +</P> + +<P> +Because of gifts lying beyond praise, the painter has preserved +seventeenth-century Spain for us as far as court circles represent it; +but among the many charges laid to the account of Philip IV. must be +added that of limiting the range and crippling the capacity of an +artist who cannot be placed second to any man. +</P> + +<P> +When we come to analyse his work we find that its qualities are not of +a sensational kind. Velazquez makes no appeal through the medium of +brilliant pigment; his great contemporary Rubens used colour in far +more striking fashion. Velazquez loved grey and silvery tints, and in +the years of his maturity understood relative values perfectly. He +knew, too, exactly how far he could go, and never made experiments in +search of qualities that were not his. Although he had a certain +quality of delicate imagination, he was a realist, and could not paint +without a model; he never acquired a mannerism, or applied to one +sitter the treatment that some artists seem to keep for types. Every +figure he set upon canvas has its own individuality, and, while +Velazquez, like other artists, had manners and methods that belong to +fixed periods of his life, it is not easy to set down in cold print an +analysis of the causes that make up his effects. He had no tricks; +everything that he did was clear, simple, and withal inimitable. +Hundreds of men have copied his pictures; none has been able to copy +his method. With his death his influence upon art ceased. His genius +lay buried in the grave with him, and did not suffer complete +resurrection until the nineteenth century was turning towards its +successor, though Raphael Mengs had done all he could to make his +merits known a hundred years before. Even to-day, we may be said to be +in the first stage of our enjoyment of the master's work. There are at +least fifty good books upon the subject of Velazquez' life and art, +written in three or four languages, and all published in the last half +century; there must be many more to come, for every generation sees +genius in the light of its own time. +</P> + +<P> +So much for literature. In art the painter has influenced very many +moderns. Manet, Courbet, Corot, Millet, Whistler, are among the men +whose work shines in the light of the Prado, and the list might be +prolonged indefinitely, for all earnest art workers go to Velazquez, +confident that whatever their aims and ideals, he will confirm and +strengthen what is best in them. They know, too, that they may return +again and again, and that the rich stores of guidance and encouragement +in the pursuit of ideals are as inexhaustible as the barrel of meal +that did not waste, and the cruse of oil that did not fail, in the +house of the widow of Zarephath. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PAINTER'S EARLY DAYS +</H3> + +<P> +In the years when Velazquez first saw the light, the power of Spain, +despite the shock it had received from British seamen, was the +dominating factor in European politics. Philip II. had come to the end +of a reign of more than forty years; Philip III. had just reached the +throne. The painter was not born in the atmosphere of court life, but +in the very Catholic city of Seville, then as now a fatal place for +those who cannot withstand the manifold temptations to lead a lazy +life. Happily for the boy his parents had not inherited the Seville +traditions; his father came from Oporto, which, being a seaport town, +has no lack of mental and physical activity. The spirit of painting +settled at a very early age upon young Diego de Silva Velazquez—the +second name by which he is universally known belonged to his mother's +family—almost before he was in his teens he was working in the studio +of Francisco de Herrera, architect and painter. The temperaments of +master and pupil could not fuse; there was sufficient trouble to lead +Don Juan Rodriguez to transfer his son's services to Francesco Pacheco, +painter, poet, professor, and withal a man of action and experience. +He knew much about contemporary art, encouraged a hopeful outlook upon +life, and enjoyed the respect of all men. Moreover his studio was the +meeting-place for many of the distinguished folk of the city. In the +very early years of their association Pacheco understood that his young +pupil was not like other lads, that he possessed an individuality that +could not be repressed or directed into the usual channels, and instead +of resenting this new element, he sought to direct it wisely and +kindly, thereby laying Velazquez under a debt of gratitude that the +painter never repudiated. Indeed there were stronger ties in the +making, for in the spring of 1618, when the young artist was on the +threshold of his wonderful career, Pacheco gave him his daughter Juana +for wife, "encouraged," he says, "by his virtues, his fine qualities, +and the hopes which his happy nature and great talent raised in me." +The kind old painter is not remembered to-day by his pictures, or even +by his "Book of Portraits of Illustrious Personages," and other +quaintly titled works from his pen. He lives because he helped to make +Velazquez a great painter, and recorded his impression of his +son-in-law's earliest works, the various "Bodegones," of which several +may be seen in London to-day. Others are in Berlin and St. Petersburg. +From these pictures of the secular life Velazquez passed to religious +subjects—"Christ in the House of Martha" (National Gallery) and the +"Adoration of the Magi" (Prado) belong to these early years. +</P> + +<HR> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +PLATE III.—THE INFANTE PHILIP PROSPER +</P> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +This picture hangs in the Imperial Gallery of Vienna. It is the work +of the painter's last period, and shows us the little son of Philip IV. +by his second wife. The lad died some two years after the picture was +painted; it has been restored, not too cleverly. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-024t"></A> +<CENTER> +<A HREF="images/img-024.jpg"> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-024t.jpg" ALT="Plate III." BORDER="2" WIDTH="577" HEIGHT="776"> +</A> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR> + +<P> +In 1622, Velazquez, already the father of two children, made his first +journey to Madrid, and was allowed to visit the royal palaces. He did +not stay long in Castile, and his return to the capital was brought +about by the divinity that shapes men's ends. Philip III. was dead; +his son Philip IV. had selected as friend and adviser the Count +Olivarez, son of the Governor of the Alcazar in Seville. Olivarez had +many friends in the city that wears the "Modo" for its badge, in +recognition of unswerving loyalty to Alfonso the Learned. Doubtless he +had heard about the work of the young painter and had seen some +examples of it, and he wished to strengthen himself in the capital by +bringing accomplished men from his own city to official posts in +Madrid. So he sent for Velazquez, who journeyed a second time to the +north, now in the company of Pacheco, and on arrival there painted a +lost portrait of a Gentleman Usher, Fonseca by name. This picture did +for Velazquez what the portrait of Admiral Keppel did for Reynolds, and +before the excitement died away, the young King Philip IV. had deigned +to promise a sitting to the clever Sevillian. The success of the first +picture of Philip IV. (apparently the early one now in the Prado) was +so complete that the king ordered all existing portraits of himself to +be removed from the palace, and gave the painter an order of admission +to his service with a salary of about two pounds five shillings a +month! Under the skilled hands of the artist we are permitted to see +the tall, gloomy lad grow up a dull, reserved man, and we read in his +face a part at least of the causes of Spain's ultimate downfall. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VELAZQUEZ IN MADRID +</H3> + +<P> +Of the painter's work at court in those early days we hear a little +from Pacheco, but the story of the times is more or less obscure. A +clever portrait-painter was not a very interesting person in the eyes +of a Spanish grandee. He was classed with the court buffoons and +dwarfs who existed merely to amuse. Indeed, portraiture was not above +suspicion in the eyes of some fanatics, who held that art existed to +serve the Church, and should not seek secular employment. There are +documents extant showing that Velazquez received eight pounds for three +portraits, of which one is lost and the other two (Philip and the Count +of Olivarez) are in Spain. In 1625 the painter received a present of +three hundred ducats, which was followed by a pension of the same value +and a gift of free lodging, and, in 1627, by the appointment to the +post of Gentleman Usher. There is no doubt but that the king was +attached to his young court painter in a certain undemonstrative +fashion. Pacheco tells us that Philip used to visit the artist's +studio constantly, reaching it by way of the secret passages of which +the palace was full. +</P> + +<P> +The year 1628 marks an event of the first importance in the life of +Velazquez, for Peter Paul Rubens came on a diplomatic mission to +Madrid, charged by his government to pave the way to the conclusion of +peace between England and Spain. Rubens was then about fifty years +old. He stayed nine months in the Spanish capital, and, despite his +diplomatic duties and the gout, found time to paint an extraordinary +number of pictures, including five of Philip. He also copied the +king's Titians. Velazquez was entrusted by Philip with the work of +entertaining Rubens, and showing him the art treasures of Spain, and +the friendship that grew up rapidly between the two artists was +creditable to both, because Rubens, then at the zenith of his fame, +recognised the amazing gifts of the young Spaniard, and Velazquez never +allowed the brilliancy of the ambassador-artist to tempt him from the +paths that he had chosen to follow. There are some who think that +Rubens exerted a great influence upon his young friend's art, but we +cannot pretend to trace it. Rubens may have widened his mind; he could +not influence his hand or eye. +</P> + +<P> +Shortly after Rubens left Madrid, Velazquez completed his picture "Los +Borrachos," now in the Prado, and one of the acknowledged masterpieces +of his first style, though the tone is dark, and some of the figures do +not blend with their surroundings. In the late summer of the same year +Velazquez left Spain for Italy, in the company of Don Ambrosio Spinola, +who was going to take command of the Spanish forces. Soldier and +artist parted at Milan, and the latter went to Venice, where he stayed +with the Spanish ambassador and copied some of Tintoretto's pictures. +Thence he went by way of Ferrara to Rome, the honoured guest of a +relation of the Count of Olivarez, and he busied himself copying old +pictures and painting new ones. Like many of the artists who go for +the first time to Italy, he was influenced in some degree by Guido, who +was then living. He painted his own portrait, which is to be seen in +the Capitoline Museum, and went from Rome to Naples, returning to +Madrid in the early part of 1651. +</P> + +<HR> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +PLATE IV.—THE INFANTE DON BALTHASAR CARLOS +</P> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +This is one of the Prado pictures of King Philip's eldest son by his +first wife, the unfortunate little prince who died while he was yet a +boy. When this picture was painted Don Balthasar Carlos was six years +old. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-034t"></A> +<CENTER> +<A HREF="images/img-034.jpg"> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-034t.jpg" ALT="Plate IV." BORDER="2" WIDTH="576" HEIGHT="775"> +</A> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR> + +<P> +It might be mentioned in this place that the painter's eldest daughter +was growing up, and that he married her three years later to one of his +pupils, the artist J. B. del Mazo. This clever artist, who was treated +by his master Velazquez as Velazquez had been treated by his master +Pacheco, is held by critics to be responsible for many pictures +generally ascribed to his father-in-law. There is a picture in the +Wallace Collection known as the "Lady with the Fan," which is thought +by no less a critic than Señor Beruete to represent the young Francesca +Velazquez, who became the Señora del Mazo when she was only fifteen +years old. +</P> + +<P> +Shortly after his return to Madrid, Velazquez came under the influence +of El Greco, who had died in 1614, and left some wonderful pictures +that may be seen to-day in Toledo. This fact is important, not that +the influence resulted in imitation, but because it was distinctly +inspiring, and Greco is a painter who is coming slowly before the +public. It cannot be doubted that his influence on artists through +Velazquez has been very deep and abiding, particularly in portraiture. +</P> + +<P> +In the years following the return from Italy, Velazquez painted some of +the pictures of the little prince Don Balthasar Carlos, the king's son, +who was born in 1629, and died in 1646, the year of his betrothal to +Mariana of Austria. There are many pictures of this interesting lad +who, had he lived, might have done so much to save his country. The +earliest was painted as soon as Velazquez returned from Italy, and is +at present in Boston. The next in date would seem to be the one in the +Wallace Collection, and following this comes the well-known picture of +Don Balthasar in hunting dress, now in the Prado, the one with the +small greyhound seen on the right, just coming into the canvas. Then +we have the famous picture of the young prince on his spirited +Andalusian pony, which is perhaps the most popular of all; and +succeeding that in the order of the painting comes the portrait that, +in the writer's opinion, is the best of the series. It hangs in the +Imperial Museum in Vienna, and was painted when the prince was about +eleven years old. Doubtless there are other portraits of the ill-fated +boy, whose features seem to suggest that he had inherited from his +mother some of the qualities that his father lacked, and that had he +been spared to succeed his father in 1665, he would have handled +affairs with vigour and intelligence. +</P> + +<P> +In 1638 Philip's daughter Maria Teresa was born, and the history of the +artist's life in Madrid becomes uneventful or lost. Probably on +account of the increasing unrest abroad and the decline of the Spanish +fortunes, Velazquez' earliest patron, the Count of Olivarez, was +disgraced in 1643, the year in which Condé helped to break the power of +Spain at Rocroi. +</P> + +<P> +Although the condition of the Spanish Empire was very unfavourable, and +Philip IV. must have known long hours of anxiety and unrest, there is +no reason to believe that he withdrew his company or his favour from +the best beloved of his court painters. Spinola had taken Breda from +Justin of Nassau, and the surrender was promptly immortalised by +Velazquez in the picture "Las Lanzas," which draws so many pilgrims to +Madrid to-day. It was painted for the palace of Buen Retiro, and +curiously enough—since it records one of the few successes of Spain in +the Low Countries—the subject passed out of men's memory, and for many +years nobody knew why the artist had painted it, or what it was all +about. Some time between the painting of this picture and the fall of +Olivarez, Murillo came to Madrid and became a pupil of Velazquez, who +had just received a grant of five hundred ducats to be paid annually by +order of the king. In 1644 Velazquez accompanied Philip on a journey +through Aragon, and two or three years later he was appointed Inspector +of Buildings, a post involving much tedious work, and helping to keep +the painter from his studio. He seems to have bestowed a certain +amount of labour on portraits painted by other men, in order to bring +them into harmony with the collection that Philip was making. It is +difficult to deal with this matter within limited space because the +details are distinctly controversial, but it is as well to remember +that some of the portraits attributed to Velazquez in the Prado Gallery +are of people who were dead before Velazquez was painting, so they +could not have sat for him; and in the days of Philip IV. it was +considered no disgrace for a man to repaint another artist's canvases. +Moreover, a painter to the court of Spain was not supposed to carry an +uneasy conscience about with him. It was his duty to obey orders and +to accept from his superiors as much guidance and direction as they +were gracious enough to give him. +</P> + +<P> +In 1649 the king granted Velazquez permission to return to Italy in +order to find pictures for a Royal Academy of Fine Art to be +established in Madrid. By this time Philip was a widower, though he +was on the point of marrying his niece, Mariana of Austria. She had +been affianced to the Infante Don Balthasar Carlos, but he had been +dead for three years, and the Spanish throne was without an heir. +Velazquez visited Genoa, Venice, Milan, and Padua, and brought back +pictures by Veronese and Tintoretto. Rome and Naples were revisited, +and the famous portrait of Pope Innocent X., of which one copy is in +St. Petersburg, and the other in the Doria Palace in Rome, was painted. +The former is a bust and a study; the latter is a three-quarter length, +and is painted with a wonderful blend of red and white. It was copied +by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who declared that it was the finest work he had +seen in Rome. What would he have thought of the later masterpieces by +the same hand? The portrait was copied by other men too, and there is +no doubt that the copies were in some cases sold for originals. +</P> + +<P> +By the time Velazquez returned to Madrid in 1651, at the urgent request +of his royal master, the court of Spain was <I>en fête</I>. Philip's wife, +to whom he had been married two years, was only seventeen, and required +amusement. Functions of every sort, excursions, entertainments on a +most sumptuous scale, were the order of the day, and because Velazquez +was now at the summit of his achievement, because he could paint +pictures that will endure as long as men care for art, it is difficult +indeed to forgive Philip IV. for making him Marshal of the Palace. To +be sure the post was well paid, the salary being about £400 a year with +lodging in the Treasure House, but the duties were endless. The king's +action was on a par with the custom that prevails in our own Foreign +Office, of sending a man who understands China thoroughly to serve the +country in Peru, and one who has mastered Russian politics to Portugal. +</P> + +<HR> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +PLATE V.—ANTONIO THE ENGLISHMAN +</P> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +This was one of the dwarfs in the service of the king. His is one of +the last portraits painted by Velazquez. The figure is life size, and +hangs in the Prado at Madrid. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-044t"></A> +<CENTER> +<A HREF="images/img-044.jpg"> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-044t.jpg" ALT="Plate V." BORDER="2" WIDTH="573" HEIGHT="777"> +</A> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR> + +<P> +Happily Velazquez, for all that he was regarded in Madrid as a rather +lazy man, found time when he was Marshal of the Palace to paint the +best of all his portraits. He was honoured by Queen Mariana of +Austria, the king's second wife, who sat for him on several occasions, +and the results may be seen in Paris, Vienna, New York, and Madrid. +Some of the portraits, painted without a suspicion of flattery, show +the absurd head-dress, the false hair, and the extraordinary crinoline +that were worn at the time, in all their ugliness, and force us to see +how great was the distance lying between the royal house and any sense +of beauty. Velazquez was not perhaps very happy with this work, +because Nature had endowed Philip's wife with a face that was almost as +dull and unresponsive to emotion as that of her lord and master; but +after a time children were born, and the court painter had a more +sympathetic task. He has left portraits that are quite charming of the +Infanta Margarita and the Infante Philip Prosper; he painted both of +the children while they were very young. In point of fact, neither +lived to grow up; doubtless they would have been uninteresting enough +if they had been spared. The Infanta Margarita is to be seen in +Vienna, in Paris, and in Madrid, and she of course is the centre of the +famous picture, "Las Meniñas." Prince Prosper was painted by +Velazquez, when no more than two years old. There were two other +children, Prince Ferdinand and Prince Carlos II., but the former was no +more than a year old when Velazquez died, and Carlos was unborn. Of +the four children born to Philip IV. by his second wife, three died +young. +</P> + +<P> +In the last years of his life, when the pressure of court duties and +the ill-will of highly placed fools must have been hard to bear, +Velazquez found time to paint some of his greatest masterpieces. "The +Maids of Honour" ("Las Meniñas"), "The Spinners" ("Las Hilanderas"), +"Æsop," "Menippus," "The Coronation of the Virgin," and the "Venus with +the Mirror," are all the ripe fruit of the painter's last decade. His +art had matured; adversity had thrown him back upon his work; it was +the solace of the hours that were not claimed by absurd official +duties. Who shall say that the scant consideration he received from +parasites and courtiers was an unmixed evil? The men who despised the +painter because Philip favoured him may have helped to mould his +character, may have enabled him to detach himself completely from his +own official character when he could lay aside the garb of office and +turn to his beloved canvases once again. The portraits of Philip in +his last years, those of his second wife and her children, those of the +dwarfs too, belong to the years between 1651 and 1660. +</P> + +<P> +It was a custom of the unhealthy and depressing Spanish court in which +the queen lived in an armour of corsets and crinoline, and might not be +touched by any of her faithful subjects upon pain of death—the court +in which the king was compelled to preside at the <I>autos da fé</I>—to +keep dwarfs as playthings. Perhaps because they were ugly and deformed +they came quite naturally into the court environment. The earliest +portrait of Don Balthasar Carlos shows him in company with a dwarf, and +there were about the court many other unfortunate creatures whom +Velazquez painted between 1650 and 1659. +</P> + +<P> +There is more than a suspicion in the minds of many of his biographers +that the half-concealed contempt with which Velazquez was regarded in +court circles left him small choice of company; that he was rated with +dwarfs and outcasts because he worked with his hands; and of course no +hidalgo, who was a perfect master of the art of time-wasting, could +take seriously any low-blooded creature who earned his right to live by +working. If Velazquez had been on the same footing as Rubens—had he +enjoyed the same position that Goya, with no greater official +appointment, was to hold a little more than a century after his +death—we may presume that the dwarfs would not have been painted, and +that Velazquez' art would have been given to the service of the +blue-blooded gentlemen who were making as big a muddle of Spanish +interests as their country's worst enemies could desire. One hesitates +to say that they would have been less interesting sitters, because we +know that nobody, however dull and stupid in appearance, could fail to +become interesting at the hands of the painter. It is fair to +remember, too, in defence of the Spanish attitude, that the years were +given not to the arts of peace but to those of war; that leisure was +scanty, intrigue unceasing, and the austerity of life was made greater +by the strong and merciless grip of the Church. Formality and +superstition marched hand in hand in a court whose ruler, if we may +judge by his portraits, had forgotten how to smile. Then again, the +atmosphere of the Madrid court, for all its dulness and secrecy and +unhealthy ways, was not as it became under Charles III., when Godoy +played the part of Count Olivarez, and the Countess Benavente, the +Duchess of Alba, and other women as frail as they were beautiful, did +not hesitate to indulge in open intrigue with the king's painter. Turn +to the canvases of Velazquez and you will not find a woman who was +fascinating enough to have been worth the trouble and danger of an +intrigue. The wives of Philip IV. could not but have been virtuous, +and would have had but small sympathy with pretty women. To be sure +Philip IV. had many mistresses, but he did not ask his court painter to +record their beauty. +</P> + +<P> +Before Velazquez returned to Madrid from his second visit to Italy, he +seems to have painted the portrait of the dwarf known as "El Primo," +now in the Prado. This man, known in private life as Don Louis de +Hacedo, accompanied Philip on a tour, and he seems to have been a +studious person, because the artist has depicted him with book, pen, +and paper, and given him a refined expression. The others have little +to redeem their ugliness and deformity. The child of Vallecas seems to +be the dwarf who figures with Don Balthasar Carlos in the first picture +that Velazquez painted of the unfortunate young prince, the one that is +now in America. He has grown a little older and a little more ugly in +the canvas that is devoted entirely to his portrait; he does not wear +good clothes, but a coarse green coat with stockings to match. The +Idiot of Coria is also dressed in green, though his garments are a +little richer, but Don Antonio seems to have been a person of some +importance. He is pictured in the Prado standing beside a beautiful +mastiff almost as big as himself, and he wears a ruddy brown dress +worked with gold. He carries a large plumed hat in his hand. +Sebastian de Morra, who sits facing the audience, has one of the most +wonderful heads ever set on canvas by the artist. This dwarf too is +dressed in the green costume that would seem to have been worn by the +dwarfs attached to the court of Spain. In addition to the little +company of dwarfs there were buffoons at the court, and of these +Velazquez painted Pablillos, who is known as "the comedian," and Don +Juan of Austria, whose portrait is a triumph of harmony in colour, the +pink of mantle and stockings contrasting admirably with black doublet +and cape. +</P> + +<HR> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +PLATE VI.—ADMIRAL ADRIANO PULIDO PAREJA +</P> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +This picture may be seen in the National Gallery. It is signed and +dated 1639, and was purchased from the Longford Castle Collection in +1890. Señor Beruete holds a strong opinion that it was not painted by +Velazquez. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-054t"></A> +<CENTER> +<A HREF="images/img-054.jpg"> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-054t.jpg" ALT="Plate VI." BORDER="2" WIDTH="456" HEIGHT="768"> +</A> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR> + +<P> +In the last years the painter seems to have gone a little further down +in the social scale in search of his sitters, for the "Æsop" is a +beggar, and "Menippus" is no better. To all these sufferers and +outcasts Velazquez responded with a sympathy that is not less clearly +revealed than the technique that gives so much enduring delight to +artists the world over. +</P> + +<P> +In the final decade of the painter's life Philip seems to have given +him no more than two sittings. Perhaps the artist's "Mars" and his +"Venus with the Mirror" gave offence in Madrid, where the nude was only +accepted if it was painted by some artist who had won his fame outside +the Iberian Peninsula. The whole trend of life in the court of Mariana +of Austria was opposed to the presentation of the nude in art. The two +late pictures of Philip, of which the one is in the Prado and the +second in our National Gallery, are quite the most finished of all his +studies of his royal master. The face, free from even a suggestion of +human interest or enthusiasm, has no emotion whatsoever save +disillusionment and sadness. The spectator gets a suggestion that life +has resolved itself into a long series of formal duties and formal +enjoyments, and that neither suffices to make it worth living. Duty to +the world at large and to the vast empire slipping from his grasp seems +to be all that holds Philip; and when we consider that he had lost his +first wife and her promising son, and of his children by his second +wife one or two were dead already; that dissipation and anxiety had +sapped his energies, and superstition had crabbed his intelligence; it +is not strange that the face should be as it is. +</P> + +<P> +In 1658 Philip conferred upon Velazquez the knighthood of Santiago, and +money was deposited on his behalf by a friend who understood the +painter's financial straits to pay for the inquiries relating to his +genealogy. In spite of the king's wishes, the Council appointed to +inquire into the antecedents of the painter refused to admit him, +though Velazquez supplied many proofs that his blood was pure and his +origin honourable. At last, Philip applied to the Pope Alexander VII. +for a dispensation in the artist's favour, realising that the Vatican +was a Court whose jurisdiction was unlimited in its scope. The Pope +was complaisant: he could hardly be otherwise to Philip IV.; he sent a +brief that enabled Velazquez, after long delays, to obtain the much +coveted order. The story that Philip bestowed it upon Velazquez as a +reward for the picture "Las Meniñas" is one of the pretty fables that +must be disregarded, and it seems likely that Philip only exerted +himself on his painter's behalf because he wished him to superintend +the arrangements for the festivities that were to celebrate the +marriage of the Infanta Maria Teresa with Louis XIV. If we may read +character in physiognomy, there is little risk that Philip would have +behaved generously without cause. +</P> + +<P> +Velazquez left Madrid for Irun, on the Franco-Spanish frontier, in +April 1660. The work was harassing; he was not a <I>persona grata</I> with +his colleagues, and none sought to lighten his burdens. He returned to +the capital at the end of June, when Madrid is not fit to live in, and +was taken ill a month later. Hard and unremitting labour, the folly +and bitter opposition of men who were not worthy to clean his palette, +the inconveniences and delays of travel in Spain, and the tender +mercies of several Spanish doctors of repute, seem to have combined, +with a bad attack of fever, to bring a troubled life to its closing +scene. The end came on the 6th of August 1660, when, to quote Señor +Beruete, "he delivered up his soul to God, who had created him to be +the admiration of the world." +</P> + +<P> +The body was decorated with the ornaments of the knights of Santiago +and buried in the parish church of St. John the Baptist. Within a week +his devoted wife, Juana de Pacheco Velazquez, followed him to a rest +that no ceremonial of the Spanish court could disturb. +</P> + +<P> +Strange as it may seem to those who know nothing of Spain, the petty +worries and vexations to which Velazquez had been subjected did not +cease with his death. It was decided by the authorities that the +thousand ducats paid to the dead painter for superintending the works +of the Alcazar must be returned, and in order that the claim might be +met, the contents of the artist's studio and some of his furniture +would seem to have been seized. King Philip recorded his gracious +distress at this decision, but did nothing to overrule it. +</P> + +<P> +Litigation followed, and after some years the claim to the thousand +ducats was withdrawn by the authorities, the affairs of the master were +wound up for all time, and the stigma of debt was removed from the +memory of a man who never received a tithe of his deserts. +</P> + +<P> +Philip IV. took Juan del Mazo, the painter's son-in-law, to be court +painter in Velazquez' place, and the appointment is worth noting, +because it is to this worthy man's wonderful facility for echoing his +father-in-law's style that we owe the presence of so many imitations in +the world's public galleries and private collections. Some of these +clever copies of lost pictures have remained unchallenged until recent +years, and whether this be a tribute to the capacity of del Mazo or a +reflection upon the capacity of critics, is a question lying beyond the +scope of this little book. But it is not difficult to understand that +the renown of Velazquez was on the increase for a few years after his +death, and that Mazo, who was clever and poorly paid, and had a sincere +respect for his father-in-law, should have remembered that there is no +greater flattery than imitation. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A RETROSPECT +</H3> + +<P> +It is in no spirit of extravagance that one ventures to say that the +life of Velazquez was a long and tragic struggle against surroundings +detrimental to the full and natural expression of his genius, nor is it +surprising that the people who had followed his career with +indifference saw very little matter for comment when he died. There +were a few useless and pompous ceremonies associated with his +obsequies, and Spain went on with the daily task, the common round, +unconscious of her loss. So many material possessions were passing +from hands too weak to hold or to administer them that the death of an +artist could not be noticed. +</P> + +<HR> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +PLATE VII.—DONNA MARIANA OF AUSTRIA +</P> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +This picture was brought from the Escorial to the Prado in 1845. The +lady was the second wife of Philip IV., and would have been the wife of +Don Balthasar Carlos had he lived. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-064t"></A> +<CENTER> +<A HREF="images/img-064.jpg"> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-064t.jpg" ALT="Plate VII." BORDER="2" WIDTH="532" HEIGHT="773"> +</A> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR> + +<P> +Fair-minded critics may hesitate to say with Spain's enemies that +civilisation ends with the Pyrenees, but it is certain that the Spanish +attitude towards life has differed from that of other countries to an +extent that has left indelible impressions upon art and literature. +Velazquez carried a little of the Andalusian sun to Castile, but the +heavy cloud that settled upon the Spanish court speedily obscured it. +Life for the painter was an affair of constant struggle against +financial and social difficulties, of endless work for unresponsive +masters; and the labour was not lightened by any of the associations +that helped the great masters of the Italian School who had some share +of light and honour. The funereal pomp of the Spanish court; the +strange climatic conditions of Madrid, where you may pass in a moment +from a blaze of sun that scorches to a blast of icy wind that strikes a +fatal blow at the lungs; the hard and unattractive landscape; the +proud, cruel, and impassive people who cannot even feign an interest in +such affairs as art or letters, all served to leave their impression +upon the painter's work. We cannot imagine that any artist who worked +in Madrid in the seventeenth century could become a colourist after the +manner of the Venetians; he would not see the colour unless he went to +Catalonia or Andalusia and entered into their stirring national life. +Then again Spain was influenced by the Moors, and eastern art is more +concerned with harmony than colouring, more concerned to blend neutral +tints than present rich tones. +</P> + +<P> +The writer has seen many pictures in the studios of modern Madrid that +are inspired directly by the Italians, for nowadays Spanish artists +flock to Italy, where they learn to imitate the Venetian colour +schemes, and to become third-rate echoes of old masters. There are a +few men who paint interesting pictures in Spain to-day—Pradilla and +Carbonero are among the best; but Spain does not hold a great artist. +The last of all died in exile in Bordeaux in the early days of the last +century, and left his gifts to the French School of Manet. +</P> + +<P> +Velazquez could never have become a flamboyant colourist. A few of the +pictures in the Prado have some reds and pinks; for example, "Las +Hilanderas," in which there is a red curtain, and the picture of Philip +on horseback, in which the king wears a pink scarf. There are high +colours in "The Coronation of the Virgin" and a few others, but as a +rule Velazquez wrought with a subdued palette, and sought to weave +harmonies in grey and silver. Bright colours are an expression of the +joy of life, and this was unknown to the Spaniards of Castile. Murillo +has colour, but then he was always an Andalusian. Just as Velazquez +borrowed very little from his sitters and gave a great deal, so he +claimed next to nothing from the primary colours, and he gave a colour +sense that is indescribably beautiful to silver and grey. This was his +deliberate choice and judgment, but it is impossible to forget that +surroundings and associations must have had a great deal to do with it. +Men who live lives that are complete in the fullest sense of the term +have a natural craving for glowing hues, and may find Velazquez dull if +they come to the Prado from the Academy of Venice; but unless their +tastes have become wholly vitiated, unless their eyes are suffering +from a surfeit of light, they will soon learn to find that their best +beloved masters would not bear transplanting. They belong to the soil +of the country they worked in, while Velazquez, like Rembrandt, can +travel to any climate, and shine with unclouded glory in any +atmosphere. It is impossible to imagine that Rubens could have painted +with the palette that served Velazquez, but the greater of the two men +has given the world an invaluable lesson in appreciation, and because +Nature is full of exquisite colour harmonies that are quite subdued in +tone it is well that we should have been taught to appreciate them. +Velazquez himself declared that Raphael did not please him, but Titian +did; he found in him the greatest of all the Venetians. And yet it is +hard to say that he took anything from the admired master, because with +Velazquez admiration and imitation are things apart. He did not even +imitate El Greco, the painter whose influence upon the world of art is +not yet fully acknowledged or understood, and he did not copy Rubens, +whose splendours would have dazzled a weaker man. +</P> + +<P> +Velazquez merely saw certain truths in Greco's handling of portraiture, +and accepted them. Throughout his life he made a steady improvement in +the quality of the work done, but the changes came through +introspection rather than from any outside influence. +</P> + +<P> +His pictures are divided by many critics into three styles, which may +be divided roughly by his visits to Italy. In the early days the paint +on his canvas was very thick, the shadows were heavy, the composition +was not always conclusive or well devised. The one quality was that +irreproachable throughout all the years was the drawing, which was +always masterly. From the days of the early "Bodegones" down to the +"Meniñas" nobody could find a picture in which his drawing is obviously +at fault; although in speaking of Velazquez it is of course difficult +to separate drawing from painting. As he grew up the sense of +composition and colour harmony became stronger and stronger, and the +faults passed. At the same time, Velazquez was a severe critic of his +own work, and a careful examination shows that even those pictures to +which no suspicion can attach were retouched and corrected in the +making. +</P> + +<P> +In this country one secures little more than a glimpse of the master's +work. The National Gallery has nearly a dozen pictures, but there are +certain questions about the authenticity of some of them, and the +Philip in the Dulwich Gallery is rather more than doubtful. The +Wallace Collection has a few beautiful examples of Velazquez, and after +that there are about fifty private owners of pictures that cannot be +readily seen. Perhaps a considerable proportion of these works would, +if subjected to very careful scrutiny, reveal themselves as copies by +Mazo or others. In France there are half-a-dozen fine pictures in the +Louvre. Germany can show some in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich; Holland +has one or two. There are less than a dozen in all Italy. The +Hermitage Gallery in St. Petersburg has five or six, and Vienna about +twice as many; but to see Velazquez one must go to Madrid. The Museo +del Prado has over sixty of the artist's pictures, and though a small +proportion of these have scarcely a touch of the master's hand, all his +greatest work has found a resting-place here. Las Lanzas, Las +Hilanderas, Las Meniñas, Philip IV. on horseback, Don Balthasar Carlos +on his pony, the Crucifixion, the Coronation of the Virgin, the Dwarfs, +Æsop, Menippus—all these are to be seen in the Prado; the greater +number being in the Salon of Isabella, an octagonal room in which one +may spend long hours. The writer, on the occasion of his last visit to +Madrid, made a note of the number of visitors to the famous octagonal +room during the four mornings he spent there. In the course of some +twelve hours the room was visited by some twelve people! It is only +fair to say that it was not in the tourist season; the month was June, +and nobody stayed in Madrid from choice. +</P> + +<HR> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +PLATE VIII.—THE PRINCESS MARIA THERESA OF AUSTRIA +</P> + +<P CLASS="plate"> +This daughter of Philip IV. became Queen of France. The picture was +painted when she was about ten years of age, and consequently belongs +to the last period of Velazquez' work. It was hung in the Alcazar +until some time in the eighteenth century, when it was transferred to +the Prado. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-074t"></A> +<CENTER> +<A HREF="images/img-074.jpg"> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-074t.jpg" ALT="Plate VIII." BORDER="2" WIDTH="573" HEIGHT="773"> +</A> +</CENTER> + +<BR> + +<HR> + +<P> +There are pictures by Velazquez to be seen in Madrid outside the Prado, +but for the most part they are in private houses, and are not +accessible to everybody. Seville boasts half-a-dozen canvases by her +greatest painter, and there are a few elsewhere in Spain; but it may be +said that those who know the Salon of Isabella have seen Velazquez at +his best, and that those who have seen his other pictures and have not +visited the Prado, do not know Velazquez at all. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps there are pleasant surprises yet in store for the art world, +for many pictures are still untraced. Doubtless some have been +destroyed by fire and others are in half-forgotten lumber rooms of +palaces and galleries from which they will be gathered in due course. +Velazquez owes a large part of his popularity in Spain to-day to the +measure of appreciation he has secured beyond the borders. Every +second-hand dealer in Madrid or Seville has a "genuine Murillo" to +offer the stranger. It is worth a thousand pounds; but as the dealer +is an honest man, he will sell it first for two hundred, then for one, +and finally for fifteen or even ten. But no second-hand dealer shows a +"genuine Velazquez." He knows that at best it could only appeal to +artists, and he knows them for strange folk endowed with much +enthusiasm, little money, and an embarrassing measure of knowledge of +the methods by which genuine old masters are created to supply a +long-felt want. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +The plates are printed by BEMROSE DALZIEL, LTD., Watford +<BR> +The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3> +IN THE SAME SERIES +</H3> + +<PRE> +ARTIST. AUTHOR. + +VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. +REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. +TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. +ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. +GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. +BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. +ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. +BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. +FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. +REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. +LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. +RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. +HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. +TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. +CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. +LUINI. JAMES MASON. +TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + +<I>Others in Preparation.</I> +</PRE> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Velazquez, by S. L. Bensusan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VELAZQUEZ *** + +***** This file should be named 30316-h.htm or 30316-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/3/1/30316/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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L. Bensusan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Velazquez + +Author: S. L. Bensusan + +Release Date: October 22, 2009 [EBook #30316] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VELAZQUEZ *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + + MASTERPIECES + IN COLOUR + EDITED BY -- + T. LEMAN HARE + + + + VELAZQUEZ + + + + + +===================================================================== + +PLATE I.--THE INFANTE DON FERNANDO OF AUSTRIA (Frontispiece) + +This picture was painted for the Torre de la Parada, and shows King +Philip's younger brother in hunting costume. Velazquez seems to have +repainted a part of the canvas which is to be seen in the Prado, Madrid. + +[Illustration: Plate I.] + +===================================================================== + + + + +VELAZQUEZ + + +BY S. L. BENSUSAN + +ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT + +REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR + + + +[Illustration: Title page art] + + + +LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK + +NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO. + +1907 + + + + +CONTENTS + + INTRODUCTION + I. THE METHOD AND INFLUENCE OF VELAZQUEZ + II. THE PAINTER'S EARLY DAYS + III. VELAZQUEZ IN MADRID + IV. A RETROSPECT + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Plate + + I. The Infante Don Fernando of Austria . . . . . . . Frontispiece + In the Prado, Madrid + + II. Las Meninas + In the Prado, Madrid + + III. The Infante Philip Prosper + In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna + + IV. The Infante Don Balthasar Carlos + In the Prado, Madrid + + V. Antonio the Englishman + In the Prado, Madrid + + VI. Admiral Adriano Pulido Pareja + In the National Gallery, London + + VII. Donna Mariana of Austria + In the Prado, Madrid + + VIII. The Princess Maria Theresa of Austria + In the Prado, Madrid + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +[Illustration: Velazquez] + +It is a curious truth that Spain in these days of her decline exercises +almost as much control over the mind of the world as she exercised over +its territories in the days of her great empire. Cervantes in +literature and Velazquez in art seem destined to secure for their +country a measure of immortality that throws into the background the +memory of such people as Carlos Quinto, Philip II., and those other +lesser lights who made the name of Spain respected or detested +throughout Europe and South America. If science and art are destined, +as some altruists hope, to unite the world in a bond that defies the +arbitrary boundaries made by rulers, then the name of Diego de Silva +Velazquez will stand high in the list of those whom the world delights +to honour, for people who are opposed diametrically on all questions of +politics and faith find ground upon which they may meet in security and +amity when they stand before the pictures of the great Spanish master. +And Cervantes, who used words instead of colours to express the life he +saw around him, would redeem Spain from insignificance if she had never +owned a colony, and had never sought to step beyond her own borders to +develop the arts of peace or follow the paths of war. + +Perhaps it would be hard to find more diverse opinions than those that +are heard in the studio. Artists see life through the medium of many +temperaments, they are notoriously intemperate in their enthusiasms. +There are schools of painting to suit every conviction, and the work +that one man would give his all to possess would not find hanging space +upon the wall controlled by another. But before Velazquez even artists +forget their controversies; he stands, like Bach and Beethoven in the +world of music, respected even by those who do not understand. No +controversy rages round him; he has marched unchallenged to the highest +place in men's regard. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE II.--LAS MENINAS + +This picture was painted about the year 1656, and, now in the Prado, is +considered one of the greatest works of the master. It presents the +Infanta Margarita attended by her maids of honour, while Velazquez +himself is shown painting the portraits of Philip IV. and his second +wife Mariana of Austria, who are seen reflected in the mirror. + +[Illustration: Plate II.] + +===================================================================== + +It is interesting to note that a reputation unrivalled in the world of +pictures is founded upon a comparatively small number of works. One of +his latest critics reduces the pictures of Velazquez now in existence +to eighty-nine, while acknowledging that some have disappeared from the +royal palaces of Spain and cannot be traced. This critic, Senor Don +Aureliano de Beruete--a connoisseur, a collector, and a worker in the +best interests of art--is perhaps a little too severe. He will not +admit to his catalogue a portrait like that of Admiral Adriano Pulido +Pareja, which, despite some inferior workmanship, can show considerable +claims to be regarded as genuine; but even if all the disputed ones +were admitted, and such a list as the late R. A. M. Stevenson published +were accepted without that far-seeing critic's own reserve, we should +not have as many pictures to represent the forty years of the artist's +life as Sir Joshua Reynolds was known to paint in a single year. +Velazquez has left very few drawings, and these are of small +importance; there are but two acknowledged engravings; and to limit +still further our sources of knowledge, the artist's correspondence +seems to have been lost; while the Memoirs which Velazquez was said to +have drawn up when Philip IV. sent the pictures to the Escorial are now +admitted by the best authorities to be the work of another man. + + + + +I + +THE METHOD AND INFLUENCE OF VELAZQUEZ + +In dealing with the life and work of the Spanish master, even in the +modest fashion of this little monograph, one must bear in mind the fact +that Velazquez, in the eyes of his contemporaries, was not only an +artist--he was a court painter; and pictures other than portraits were +of comparatively little importance to Philip IV. and his circle. Art +borrowed most of her importance in sixteenth and seventeenth century +Spain from the fact that she was the handmaid of Holy Mother Church. +Velazquez was a court official who chanced to be a clever +portrait-painter, and his promotion tended ever to take him further +away from his art. With the increase of state duties the claims upon +his time grew more and more difficult to meet, and, when he rose in the +closing years of his life to be Grand Marshal of the Palace, entrusted +with the ordering of state functions and missions to distinguished +foreigners, his art became entirely a secondary consideration. The +studio was no more than a place of refuge for the artist in the hours +when he might forget that he was an official. If Velazquez had not +been compelled to sacrifice the best part of forty years' activity to +the ridiculous formalities of court life, the world might have been +richer to-day by scores of pictures worthy to rank by the side of "Las +Meninas" and the portrait of Pope Innocent X. The painter might have +found outside court circles far more inspiring sitters than those whom +he was compelled to paint, for it takes all that even a Velazquez can +give to a portrait to make a Philip IV., a Mariana of Austria, or even +an Isabella of Bourbon, reveal their dominant characteristics without +caricature; indeed one feels that the interest belongs to the picture +and not to the sitter. The success is one of tone, of harmony and of +line, of sure handling directed by an inward vision. + +Because of gifts lying beyond praise, the painter has preserved +seventeenth-century Spain for us as far as court circles represent it; +but among the many charges laid to the account of Philip IV. must be +added that of limiting the range and crippling the capacity of an +artist who cannot be placed second to any man. + +When we come to analyse his work we find that its qualities are not of +a sensational kind. Velazquez makes no appeal through the medium of +brilliant pigment; his great contemporary Rubens used colour in far +more striking fashion. Velazquez loved grey and silvery tints, and in +the years of his maturity understood relative values perfectly. He +knew, too, exactly how far he could go, and never made experiments in +search of qualities that were not his. Although he had a certain +quality of delicate imagination, he was a realist, and could not paint +without a model; he never acquired a mannerism, or applied to one +sitter the treatment that some artists seem to keep for types. Every +figure he set upon canvas has its own individuality, and, while +Velazquez, like other artists, had manners and methods that belong to +fixed periods of his life, it is not easy to set down in cold print an +analysis of the causes that make up his effects. He had no tricks; +everything that he did was clear, simple, and withal inimitable. +Hundreds of men have copied his pictures; none has been able to copy +his method. With his death his influence upon art ceased. His genius +lay buried in the grave with him, and did not suffer complete +resurrection until the nineteenth century was turning towards its +successor, though Raphael Mengs had done all he could to make his +merits known a hundred years before. Even to-day, we may be said to be +in the first stage of our enjoyment of the master's work. There are at +least fifty good books upon the subject of Velazquez' life and art, +written in three or four languages, and all published in the last half +century; there must be many more to come, for every generation sees +genius in the light of its own time. + +So much for literature. In art the painter has influenced very many +moderns. Manet, Courbet, Corot, Millet, Whistler, are among the men +whose work shines in the light of the Prado, and the list might be +prolonged indefinitely, for all earnest art workers go to Velazquez, +confident that whatever their aims and ideals, he will confirm and +strengthen what is best in them. They know, too, that they may return +again and again, and that the rich stores of guidance and encouragement +in the pursuit of ideals are as inexhaustible as the barrel of meal +that did not waste, and the cruse of oil that did not fail, in the +house of the widow of Zarephath. + + + + +II + +THE PAINTER'S EARLY DAYS + +In the years when Velazquez first saw the light, the power of Spain, +despite the shock it had received from British seamen, was the +dominating factor in European politics. Philip II. had come to the end +of a reign of more than forty years; Philip III. had just reached the +throne. The painter was not born in the atmosphere of court life, but +in the very Catholic city of Seville, then as now a fatal place for +those who cannot withstand the manifold temptations to lead a lazy +life. Happily for the boy his parents had not inherited the Seville +traditions; his father came from Oporto, which, being a seaport town, +has no lack of mental and physical activity. The spirit of painting +settled at a very early age upon young Diego de Silva Velazquez--the +second name by which he is universally known belonged to his mother's +family--almost before he was in his teens he was working in the studio +of Francisco de Herrera, architect and painter. The temperaments of +master and pupil could not fuse; there was sufficient trouble to lead +Don Juan Rodriguez to transfer his son's services to Francesco Pacheco, +painter, poet, professor, and withal a man of action and experience. +He knew much about contemporary art, encouraged a hopeful outlook upon +life, and enjoyed the respect of all men. Moreover his studio was the +meeting-place for many of the distinguished folk of the city. In the +very early years of their association Pacheco understood that his young +pupil was not like other lads, that he possessed an individuality that +could not be repressed or directed into the usual channels, and instead +of resenting this new element, he sought to direct it wisely and +kindly, thereby laying Velazquez under a debt of gratitude that the +painter never repudiated. Indeed there were stronger ties in the +making, for in the spring of 1618, when the young artist was on the +threshold of his wonderful career, Pacheco gave him his daughter Juana +for wife, "encouraged," he says, "by his virtues, his fine qualities, +and the hopes which his happy nature and great talent raised in me." +The kind old painter is not remembered to-day by his pictures, or even +by his "Book of Portraits of Illustrious Personages," and other +quaintly titled works from his pen. He lives because he helped to make +Velazquez a great painter, and recorded his impression of his +son-in-law's earliest works, the various "Bodegones," of which several +may be seen in London to-day. Others are in Berlin and St. Petersburg. +From these pictures of the secular life Velazquez passed to religious +subjects--"Christ in the House of Martha" (National Gallery) and the +"Adoration of the Magi" (Prado) belong to these early years. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE III.--THE INFANTE PHILIP PROSPER + +This picture hangs in the Imperial Gallery of Vienna. It is the work +of the painter's last period, and shows us the little son of Philip IV. +by his second wife. The lad died some two years after the picture was +painted; it has been restored, not too cleverly. + +[Illustration: Plate III.] + +===================================================================== + +In 1622, Velazquez, already the father of two children, made his first +journey to Madrid, and was allowed to visit the royal palaces. He did +not stay long in Castile, and his return to the capital was brought +about by the divinity that shapes men's ends. Philip III. was dead; +his son Philip IV. had selected as friend and adviser the Count +Olivarez, son of the Governor of the Alcazar in Seville. Olivarez had +many friends in the city that wears the "Modo" for its badge, in +recognition of unswerving loyalty to Alfonso the Learned. Doubtless he +had heard about the work of the young painter and had seen some +examples of it, and he wished to strengthen himself in the capital by +bringing accomplished men from his own city to official posts in +Madrid. So he sent for Velazquez, who journeyed a second time to the +north, now in the company of Pacheco, and on arrival there painted a +lost portrait of a Gentleman Usher, Fonseca by name. This picture did +for Velazquez what the portrait of Admiral Keppel did for Reynolds, and +before the excitement died away, the young King Philip IV. had deigned +to promise a sitting to the clever Sevillian. The success of the first +picture of Philip IV. (apparently the early one now in the Prado) was +so complete that the king ordered all existing portraits of himself to +be removed from the palace, and gave the painter an order of admission +to his service with a salary of about two pounds five shillings a +month! Under the skilled hands of the artist we are permitted to see +the tall, gloomy lad grow up a dull, reserved man, and we read in his +face a part at least of the causes of Spain's ultimate downfall. + + + + +III + +VELAZQUEZ IN MADRID + +Of the painter's work at court in those early days we hear a little +from Pacheco, but the story of the times is more or less obscure. A +clever portrait-painter was not a very interesting person in the eyes +of a Spanish grandee. He was classed with the court buffoons and +dwarfs who existed merely to amuse. Indeed, portraiture was not above +suspicion in the eyes of some fanatics, who held that art existed to +serve the Church, and should not seek secular employment. There are +documents extant showing that Velazquez received eight pounds for three +portraits, of which one is lost and the other two (Philip and the Count +of Olivarez) are in Spain. In 1625 the painter received a present of +three hundred ducats, which was followed by a pension of the same value +and a gift of free lodging, and, in 1627, by the appointment to the +post of Gentleman Usher. There is no doubt but that the king was +attached to his young court painter in a certain undemonstrative +fashion. Pacheco tells us that Philip used to visit the artist's +studio constantly, reaching it by way of the secret passages of which +the palace was full. + +The year 1628 marks an event of the first importance in the life of +Velazquez, for Peter Paul Rubens came on a diplomatic mission to +Madrid, charged by his government to pave the way to the conclusion of +peace between England and Spain. Rubens was then about fifty years +old. He stayed nine months in the Spanish capital, and, despite his +diplomatic duties and the gout, found time to paint an extraordinary +number of pictures, including five of Philip. He also copied the +king's Titians. Velazquez was entrusted by Philip with the work of +entertaining Rubens, and showing him the art treasures of Spain, and +the friendship that grew up rapidly between the two artists was +creditable to both, because Rubens, then at the zenith of his fame, +recognised the amazing gifts of the young Spaniard, and Velazquez never +allowed the brilliancy of the ambassador-artist to tempt him from the +paths that he had chosen to follow. There are some who think that +Rubens exerted a great influence upon his young friend's art, but we +cannot pretend to trace it. Rubens may have widened his mind; he could +not influence his hand or eye. + +Shortly after Rubens left Madrid, Velazquez completed his picture "Los +Borrachos," now in the Prado, and one of the acknowledged masterpieces +of his first style, though the tone is dark, and some of the figures do +not blend with their surroundings. In the late summer of the same year +Velazquez left Spain for Italy, in the company of Don Ambrosio Spinola, +who was going to take command of the Spanish forces. Soldier and +artist parted at Milan, and the latter went to Venice, where he stayed +with the Spanish ambassador and copied some of Tintoretto's pictures. +Thence he went by way of Ferrara to Rome, the honoured guest of a +relation of the Count of Olivarez, and he busied himself copying old +pictures and painting new ones. Like many of the artists who go for +the first time to Italy, he was influenced in some degree by Guido, who +was then living. He painted his own portrait, which is to be seen in +the Capitoline Museum, and went from Rome to Naples, returning to +Madrid in the early part of 1651. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE IV.--THE INFANTE DON BALTHASAR CARLOS + +This is one of the Prado pictures of King Philip's eldest son by his +first wife, the unfortunate little prince who died while he was yet a +boy. When this picture was painted Don Balthasar Carlos was six years +old. + +[Illustration: Plate IV.] + +===================================================================== + +It might be mentioned in this place that the painter's eldest daughter +was growing up, and that he married her three years later to one of his +pupils, the artist J. B. del Mazo. This clever artist, who was treated +by his master Velazquez as Velazquez had been treated by his master +Pacheco, is held by critics to be responsible for many pictures +generally ascribed to his father-in-law. There is a picture in the +Wallace Collection known as the "Lady with the Fan," which is thought +by no less a critic than Senor Beruete to represent the young Francesca +Velazquez, who became the Senora del Mazo when she was only fifteen +years old. + +Shortly after his return to Madrid, Velazquez came under the influence +of El Greco, who had died in 1614, and left some wonderful pictures +that may be seen to-day in Toledo. This fact is important, not that +the influence resulted in imitation, but because it was distinctly +inspiring, and Greco is a painter who is coming slowly before the +public. It cannot be doubted that his influence on artists through +Velazquez has been very deep and abiding, particularly in portraiture. + +In the years following the return from Italy, Velazquez painted some of +the pictures of the little prince Don Balthasar Carlos, the king's son, +who was born in 1629, and died in 1646, the year of his betrothal to +Mariana of Austria. There are many pictures of this interesting lad +who, had he lived, might have done so much to save his country. The +earliest was painted as soon as Velazquez returned from Italy, and is +at present in Boston. The next in date would seem to be the one in the +Wallace Collection, and following this comes the well-known picture of +Don Balthasar in hunting dress, now in the Prado, the one with the +small greyhound seen on the right, just coming into the canvas. Then +we have the famous picture of the young prince on his spirited +Andalusian pony, which is perhaps the most popular of all; and +succeeding that in the order of the painting comes the portrait that, +in the writer's opinion, is the best of the series. It hangs in the +Imperial Museum in Vienna, and was painted when the prince was about +eleven years old. Doubtless there are other portraits of the ill-fated +boy, whose features seem to suggest that he had inherited from his +mother some of the qualities that his father lacked, and that had he +been spared to succeed his father in 1665, he would have handled +affairs with vigour and intelligence. + +In 1638 Philip's daughter Maria Teresa was born, and the history of the +artist's life in Madrid becomes uneventful or lost. Probably on +account of the increasing unrest abroad and the decline of the Spanish +fortunes, Velazquez' earliest patron, the Count of Olivarez, was +disgraced in 1643, the year in which Conde helped to break the power of +Spain at Rocroi. + +Although the condition of the Spanish Empire was very unfavourable, and +Philip IV. must have known long hours of anxiety and unrest, there is +no reason to believe that he withdrew his company or his favour from +the best beloved of his court painters. Spinola had taken Breda from +Justin of Nassau, and the surrender was promptly immortalised by +Velazquez in the picture "Las Lanzas," which draws so many pilgrims to +Madrid to-day. It was painted for the palace of Buen Retiro, and +curiously enough--since it records one of the few successes of Spain in +the Low Countries--the subject passed out of men's memory, and for many +years nobody knew why the artist had painted it, or what it was all +about. Some time between the painting of this picture and the fall of +Olivarez, Murillo came to Madrid and became a pupil of Velazquez, who +had just received a grant of five hundred ducats to be paid annually by +order of the king. In 1644 Velazquez accompanied Philip on a journey +through Aragon, and two or three years later he was appointed Inspector +of Buildings, a post involving much tedious work, and helping to keep +the painter from his studio. He seems to have bestowed a certain +amount of labour on portraits painted by other men, in order to bring +them into harmony with the collection that Philip was making. It is +difficult to deal with this matter within limited space because the +details are distinctly controversial, but it is as well to remember +that some of the portraits attributed to Velazquez in the Prado Gallery +are of people who were dead before Velazquez was painting, so they +could not have sat for him; and in the days of Philip IV. it was +considered no disgrace for a man to repaint another artist's canvases. +Moreover, a painter to the court of Spain was not supposed to carry an +uneasy conscience about with him. It was his duty to obey orders and +to accept from his superiors as much guidance and direction as they +were gracious enough to give him. + +In 1649 the king granted Velazquez permission to return to Italy in +order to find pictures for a Royal Academy of Fine Art to be +established in Madrid. By this time Philip was a widower, though he +was on the point of marrying his niece, Mariana of Austria. She had +been affianced to the Infante Don Balthasar Carlos, but he had been +dead for three years, and the Spanish throne was without an heir. +Velazquez visited Genoa, Venice, Milan, and Padua, and brought back +pictures by Veronese and Tintoretto. Rome and Naples were revisited, +and the famous portrait of Pope Innocent X., of which one copy is in +St. Petersburg, and the other in the Doria Palace in Rome, was painted. +The former is a bust and a study; the latter is a three-quarter length, +and is painted with a wonderful blend of red and white. It was copied +by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who declared that it was the finest work he had +seen in Rome. What would he have thought of the later masterpieces by +the same hand? The portrait was copied by other men too, and there is +no doubt that the copies were in some cases sold for originals. + +By the time Velazquez returned to Madrid in 1651, at the urgent request +of his royal master, the court of Spain was _en fete_. Philip's wife, +to whom he had been married two years, was only seventeen, and required +amusement. Functions of every sort, excursions, entertainments on a +most sumptuous scale, were the order of the day, and because Velazquez +was now at the summit of his achievement, because he could paint +pictures that will endure as long as men care for art, it is difficult +indeed to forgive Philip IV. for making him Marshal of the Palace. To +be sure the post was well paid, the salary being about L400 a year with +lodging in the Treasure House, but the duties were endless. The king's +action was on a par with the custom that prevails in our own Foreign +Office, of sending a man who understands China thoroughly to serve the +country in Peru, and one who has mastered Russian politics to Portugal. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE V.--ANTONIO THE ENGLISHMAN + +This was one of the dwarfs in the service of the king. His is one of +the last portraits painted by Velazquez. The figure is life size, and +hangs in the Prado at Madrid. + +[Illustration: Plate V.] + +===================================================================== + +Happily Velazquez, for all that he was regarded in Madrid as a rather +lazy man, found time when he was Marshal of the Palace to paint the +best of all his portraits. He was honoured by Queen Mariana of +Austria, the king's second wife, who sat for him on several occasions, +and the results may be seen in Paris, Vienna, New York, and Madrid. +Some of the portraits, painted without a suspicion of flattery, show +the absurd head-dress, the false hair, and the extraordinary crinoline +that were worn at the time, in all their ugliness, and force us to see +how great was the distance lying between the royal house and any sense +of beauty. Velazquez was not perhaps very happy with this work, +because Nature had endowed Philip's wife with a face that was almost as +dull and unresponsive to emotion as that of her lord and master; but +after a time children were born, and the court painter had a more +sympathetic task. He has left portraits that are quite charming of the +Infanta Margarita and the Infante Philip Prosper; he painted both of +the children while they were very young. In point of fact, neither +lived to grow up; doubtless they would have been uninteresting enough +if they had been spared. The Infanta Margarita is to be seen in +Vienna, in Paris, and in Madrid, and she of course is the centre of the +famous picture, "Las Meninas." Prince Prosper was painted by +Velazquez, when no more than two years old. There were two other +children, Prince Ferdinand and Prince Carlos II., but the former was no +more than a year old when Velazquez died, and Carlos was unborn. Of +the four children born to Philip IV. by his second wife, three died +young. + +In the last years of his life, when the pressure of court duties and +the ill-will of highly placed fools must have been hard to bear, +Velazquez found time to paint some of his greatest masterpieces. "The +Maids of Honour" ("Las Meninas"), "The Spinners" ("Las Hilanderas"), +"AEsop," "Menippus," "The Coronation of the Virgin," and the "Venus with +the Mirror," are all the ripe fruit of the painter's last decade. His +art had matured; adversity had thrown him back upon his work; it was +the solace of the hours that were not claimed by absurd official +duties. Who shall say that the scant consideration he received from +parasites and courtiers was an unmixed evil? The men who despised the +painter because Philip favoured him may have helped to mould his +character, may have enabled him to detach himself completely from his +own official character when he could lay aside the garb of office and +turn to his beloved canvases once again. The portraits of Philip in +his last years, those of his second wife and her children, those of the +dwarfs too, belong to the years between 1651 and 1660. + +It was a custom of the unhealthy and depressing Spanish court in which +the queen lived in an armour of corsets and crinoline, and might not be +touched by any of her faithful subjects upon pain of death--the court +in which the king was compelled to preside at the _autos da fe_--to +keep dwarfs as playthings. Perhaps because they were ugly and deformed +they came quite naturally into the court environment. The earliest +portrait of Don Balthasar Carlos shows him in company with a dwarf, and +there were about the court many other unfortunate creatures whom +Velazquez painted between 1650 and 1659. + +There is more than a suspicion in the minds of many of his biographers +that the half-concealed contempt with which Velazquez was regarded in +court circles left him small choice of company; that he was rated with +dwarfs and outcasts because he worked with his hands; and of course no +hidalgo, who was a perfect master of the art of time-wasting, could +take seriously any low-blooded creature who earned his right to live by +working. If Velazquez had been on the same footing as Rubens--had he +enjoyed the same position that Goya, with no greater official +appointment, was to hold a little more than a century after his +death--we may presume that the dwarfs would not have been painted, and +that Velazquez' art would have been given to the service of the +blue-blooded gentlemen who were making as big a muddle of Spanish +interests as their country's worst enemies could desire. One hesitates +to say that they would have been less interesting sitters, because we +know that nobody, however dull and stupid in appearance, could fail to +become interesting at the hands of the painter. It is fair to +remember, too, in defence of the Spanish attitude, that the years were +given not to the arts of peace but to those of war; that leisure was +scanty, intrigue unceasing, and the austerity of life was made greater +by the strong and merciless grip of the Church. Formality and +superstition marched hand in hand in a court whose ruler, if we may +judge by his portraits, had forgotten how to smile. Then again, the +atmosphere of the Madrid court, for all its dulness and secrecy and +unhealthy ways, was not as it became under Charles III., when Godoy +played the part of Count Olivarez, and the Countess Benavente, the +Duchess of Alba, and other women as frail as they were beautiful, did +not hesitate to indulge in open intrigue with the king's painter. Turn +to the canvases of Velazquez and you will not find a woman who was +fascinating enough to have been worth the trouble and danger of an +intrigue. The wives of Philip IV. could not but have been virtuous, +and would have had but small sympathy with pretty women. To be sure +Philip IV. had many mistresses, but he did not ask his court painter to +record their beauty. + +Before Velazquez returned to Madrid from his second visit to Italy, he +seems to have painted the portrait of the dwarf known as "El Primo," +now in the Prado. This man, known in private life as Don Louis de +Hacedo, accompanied Philip on a tour, and he seems to have been a +studious person, because the artist has depicted him with book, pen, +and paper, and given him a refined expression. The others have little +to redeem their ugliness and deformity. The child of Vallecas seems to +be the dwarf who figures with Don Balthasar Carlos in the first picture +that Velazquez painted of the unfortunate young prince, the one that is +now in America. He has grown a little older and a little more ugly in +the canvas that is devoted entirely to his portrait; he does not wear +good clothes, but a coarse green coat with stockings to match. The +Idiot of Coria is also dressed in green, though his garments are a +little richer, but Don Antonio seems to have been a person of some +importance. He is pictured in the Prado standing beside a beautiful +mastiff almost as big as himself, and he wears a ruddy brown dress +worked with gold. He carries a large plumed hat in his hand. +Sebastian de Morra, who sits facing the audience, has one of the most +wonderful heads ever set on canvas by the artist. This dwarf too is +dressed in the green costume that would seem to have been worn by the +dwarfs attached to the court of Spain. In addition to the little +company of dwarfs there were buffoons at the court, and of these +Velazquez painted Pablillos, who is known as "the comedian," and Don +Juan of Austria, whose portrait is a triumph of harmony in colour, the +pink of mantle and stockings contrasting admirably with black doublet +and cape. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE VI.--ADMIRAL ADRIANO PULIDO PAREJA + +This picture may be seen in the National Gallery. It is signed and +dated 1639, and was purchased from the Longford Castle Collection in +1890. Senor Beruete holds a strong opinion that it was not painted by +Velazquez. + +[Illustration: Plate VI.] + +===================================================================== + +In the last years the painter seems to have gone a little further down +in the social scale in search of his sitters, for the "AEsop" is a +beggar, and "Menippus" is no better. To all these sufferers and +outcasts Velazquez responded with a sympathy that is not less clearly +revealed than the technique that gives so much enduring delight to +artists the world over. + +In the final decade of the painter's life Philip seems to have given +him no more than two sittings. Perhaps the artist's "Mars" and his +"Venus with the Mirror" gave offence in Madrid, where the nude was only +accepted if it was painted by some artist who had won his fame outside +the Iberian Peninsula. The whole trend of life in the court of Mariana +of Austria was opposed to the presentation of the nude in art. The two +late pictures of Philip, of which the one is in the Prado and the +second in our National Gallery, are quite the most finished of all his +studies of his royal master. The face, free from even a suggestion of +human interest or enthusiasm, has no emotion whatsoever save +disillusionment and sadness. The spectator gets a suggestion that life +has resolved itself into a long series of formal duties and formal +enjoyments, and that neither suffices to make it worth living. Duty to +the world at large and to the vast empire slipping from his grasp seems +to be all that holds Philip; and when we consider that he had lost his +first wife and her promising son, and of his children by his second +wife one or two were dead already; that dissipation and anxiety had +sapped his energies, and superstition had crabbed his intelligence; it +is not strange that the face should be as it is. + +In 1658 Philip conferred upon Velazquez the knighthood of Santiago, and +money was deposited on his behalf by a friend who understood the +painter's financial straits to pay for the inquiries relating to his +genealogy. In spite of the king's wishes, the Council appointed to +inquire into the antecedents of the painter refused to admit him, +though Velazquez supplied many proofs that his blood was pure and his +origin honourable. At last, Philip applied to the Pope Alexander VII. +for a dispensation in the artist's favour, realising that the Vatican +was a Court whose jurisdiction was unlimited in its scope. The Pope +was complaisant: he could hardly be otherwise to Philip IV.; he sent a +brief that enabled Velazquez, after long delays, to obtain the much +coveted order. The story that Philip bestowed it upon Velazquez as a +reward for the picture "Las Meninas" is one of the pretty fables that +must be disregarded, and it seems likely that Philip only exerted +himself on his painter's behalf because he wished him to superintend +the arrangements for the festivities that were to celebrate the +marriage of the Infanta Maria Teresa with Louis XIV. If we may read +character in physiognomy, there is little risk that Philip would have +behaved generously without cause. + +Velazquez left Madrid for Irun, on the Franco-Spanish frontier, in +April 1660. The work was harassing; he was not a _persona grata_ with +his colleagues, and none sought to lighten his burdens. He returned to +the capital at the end of June, when Madrid is not fit to live in, and +was taken ill a month later. Hard and unremitting labour, the folly +and bitter opposition of men who were not worthy to clean his palette, +the inconveniences and delays of travel in Spain, and the tender +mercies of several Spanish doctors of repute, seem to have combined, +with a bad attack of fever, to bring a troubled life to its closing +scene. The end came on the 6th of August 1660, when, to quote Senor +Beruete, "he delivered up his soul to God, who had created him to be +the admiration of the world." + +The body was decorated with the ornaments of the knights of Santiago +and buried in the parish church of St. John the Baptist. Within a week +his devoted wife, Juana de Pacheco Velazquez, followed him to a rest +that no ceremonial of the Spanish court could disturb. + +Strange as it may seem to those who know nothing of Spain, the petty +worries and vexations to which Velazquez had been subjected did not +cease with his death. It was decided by the authorities that the +thousand ducats paid to the dead painter for superintending the works +of the Alcazar must be returned, and in order that the claim might be +met, the contents of the artist's studio and some of his furniture +would seem to have been seized. King Philip recorded his gracious +distress at this decision, but did nothing to overrule it. + +Litigation followed, and after some years the claim to the thousand +ducats was withdrawn by the authorities, the affairs of the master were +wound up for all time, and the stigma of debt was removed from the +memory of a man who never received a tithe of his deserts. + +Philip IV. took Juan del Mazo, the painter's son-in-law, to be court +painter in Velazquez' place, and the appointment is worth noting, +because it is to this worthy man's wonderful facility for echoing his +father-in-law's style that we owe the presence of so many imitations in +the world's public galleries and private collections. Some of these +clever copies of lost pictures have remained unchallenged until recent +years, and whether this be a tribute to the capacity of del Mazo or a +reflection upon the capacity of critics, is a question lying beyond the +scope of this little book. But it is not difficult to understand that +the renown of Velazquez was on the increase for a few years after his +death, and that Mazo, who was clever and poorly paid, and had a sincere +respect for his father-in-law, should have remembered that there is no +greater flattery than imitation. + + + + +IV + +A RETROSPECT + +It is in no spirit of extravagance that one ventures to say that the +life of Velazquez was a long and tragic struggle against surroundings +detrimental to the full and natural expression of his genius, nor is it +surprising that the people who had followed his career with +indifference saw very little matter for comment when he died. There +were a few useless and pompous ceremonies associated with his +obsequies, and Spain went on with the daily task, the common round, +unconscious of her loss. So many material possessions were passing +from hands too weak to hold or to administer them that the death of an +artist could not be noticed. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE VII.--DONNA MARIANA OF AUSTRIA + +This picture was brought from the Escorial to the Prado in 1845. The +lady was the second wife of Philip IV., and would have been the wife of +Don Balthasar Carlos had he lived. + +[Illustration: Plate VII.] + +===================================================================== + +Fair-minded critics may hesitate to say with Spain's enemies that +civilisation ends with the Pyrenees, but it is certain that the Spanish +attitude towards life has differed from that of other countries to an +extent that has left indelible impressions upon art and literature. +Velazquez carried a little of the Andalusian sun to Castile, but the +heavy cloud that settled upon the Spanish court speedily obscured it. +Life for the painter was an affair of constant struggle against +financial and social difficulties, of endless work for unresponsive +masters; and the labour was not lightened by any of the associations +that helped the great masters of the Italian School who had some share +of light and honour. The funereal pomp of the Spanish court; the +strange climatic conditions of Madrid, where you may pass in a moment +from a blaze of sun that scorches to a blast of icy wind that strikes a +fatal blow at the lungs; the hard and unattractive landscape; the +proud, cruel, and impassive people who cannot even feign an interest in +such affairs as art or letters, all served to leave their impression +upon the painter's work. We cannot imagine that any artist who worked +in Madrid in the seventeenth century could become a colourist after the +manner of the Venetians; he would not see the colour unless he went to +Catalonia or Andalusia and entered into their stirring national life. +Then again Spain was influenced by the Moors, and eastern art is more +concerned with harmony than colouring, more concerned to blend neutral +tints than present rich tones. + +The writer has seen many pictures in the studios of modern Madrid that +are inspired directly by the Italians, for nowadays Spanish artists +flock to Italy, where they learn to imitate the Venetian colour +schemes, and to become third-rate echoes of old masters. There are a +few men who paint interesting pictures in Spain to-day--Pradilla and +Carbonero are among the best; but Spain does not hold a great artist. +The last of all died in exile in Bordeaux in the early days of the last +century, and left his gifts to the French School of Manet. + +Velazquez could never have become a flamboyant colourist. A few of the +pictures in the Prado have some reds and pinks; for example, "Las +Hilanderas," in which there is a red curtain, and the picture of Philip +on horseback, in which the king wears a pink scarf. There are high +colours in "The Coronation of the Virgin" and a few others, but as a +rule Velazquez wrought with a subdued palette, and sought to weave +harmonies in grey and silver. Bright colours are an expression of the +joy of life, and this was unknown to the Spaniards of Castile. Murillo +has colour, but then he was always an Andalusian. Just as Velazquez +borrowed very little from his sitters and gave a great deal, so he +claimed next to nothing from the primary colours, and he gave a colour +sense that is indescribably beautiful to silver and grey. This was his +deliberate choice and judgment, but it is impossible to forget that +surroundings and associations must have had a great deal to do with it. +Men who live lives that are complete in the fullest sense of the term +have a natural craving for glowing hues, and may find Velazquez dull if +they come to the Prado from the Academy of Venice; but unless their +tastes have become wholly vitiated, unless their eyes are suffering +from a surfeit of light, they will soon learn to find that their best +beloved masters would not bear transplanting. They belong to the soil +of the country they worked in, while Velazquez, like Rembrandt, can +travel to any climate, and shine with unclouded glory in any +atmosphere. It is impossible to imagine that Rubens could have painted +with the palette that served Velazquez, but the greater of the two men +has given the world an invaluable lesson in appreciation, and because +Nature is full of exquisite colour harmonies that are quite subdued in +tone it is well that we should have been taught to appreciate them. +Velazquez himself declared that Raphael did not please him, but Titian +did; he found in him the greatest of all the Venetians. And yet it is +hard to say that he took anything from the admired master, because with +Velazquez admiration and imitation are things apart. He did not even +imitate El Greco, the painter whose influence upon the world of art is +not yet fully acknowledged or understood, and he did not copy Rubens, +whose splendours would have dazzled a weaker man. + +Velazquez merely saw certain truths in Greco's handling of portraiture, +and accepted them. Throughout his life he made a steady improvement in +the quality of the work done, but the changes came through +introspection rather than from any outside influence. + +His pictures are divided by many critics into three styles, which may +be divided roughly by his visits to Italy. In the early days the paint +on his canvas was very thick, the shadows were heavy, the composition +was not always conclusive or well devised. The one quality was that +irreproachable throughout all the years was the drawing, which was +always masterly. From the days of the early "Bodegones" down to the +"Meninas" nobody could find a picture in which his drawing is obviously +at fault; although in speaking of Velazquez it is of course difficult +to separate drawing from painting. As he grew up the sense of +composition and colour harmony became stronger and stronger, and the +faults passed. At the same time, Velazquez was a severe critic of his +own work, and a careful examination shows that even those pictures to +which no suspicion can attach were retouched and corrected in the +making. + +In this country one secures little more than a glimpse of the master's +work. The National Gallery has nearly a dozen pictures, but there are +certain questions about the authenticity of some of them, and the +Philip in the Dulwich Gallery is rather more than doubtful. The +Wallace Collection has a few beautiful examples of Velazquez, and after +that there are about fifty private owners of pictures that cannot be +readily seen. Perhaps a considerable proportion of these works would, +if subjected to very careful scrutiny, reveal themselves as copies by +Mazo or others. In France there are half-a-dozen fine pictures in the +Louvre. Germany can show some in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich; Holland +has one or two. There are less than a dozen in all Italy. The +Hermitage Gallery in St. Petersburg has five or six, and Vienna about +twice as many; but to see Velazquez one must go to Madrid. The Museo +del Prado has over sixty of the artist's pictures, and though a small +proportion of these have scarcely a touch of the master's hand, all his +greatest work has found a resting-place here. Las Lanzas, Las +Hilanderas, Las Meninas, Philip IV. on horseback, Don Balthasar Carlos +on his pony, the Crucifixion, the Coronation of the Virgin, the Dwarfs, +AEsop, Menippus--all these are to be seen in the Prado; the greater +number being in the Salon of Isabella, an octagonal room in which one +may spend long hours. The writer, on the occasion of his last visit to +Madrid, made a note of the number of visitors to the famous octagonal +room during the four mornings he spent there. In the course of some +twelve hours the room was visited by some twelve people! It is only +fair to say that it was not in the tourist season; the month was June, +and nobody stayed in Madrid from choice. + +===================================================================== + +PLATE VIII.--THE PRINCESS MARIA THERESA OF AUSTRIA + +This daughter of Philip IV. became Queen of France. The picture was +painted when she was about ten years of age, and consequently belongs +to the last period of Velazquez' work. It was hung in the Alcazar +until some time in the eighteenth century, when it was transferred to +the Prado. + +[Illustration: Plate VIII.] + +===================================================================== + +There are pictures by Velazquez to be seen in Madrid outside the Prado, +but for the most part they are in private houses, and are not +accessible to everybody. Seville boasts half-a-dozen canvases by her +greatest painter, and there are a few elsewhere in Spain; but it may be +said that those who know the Salon of Isabella have seen Velazquez at +his best, and that those who have seen his other pictures and have not +visited the Prado, do not know Velazquez at all. + +Perhaps there are pleasant surprises yet in store for the art world, +for many pictures are still untraced. Doubtless some have been +destroyed by fire and others are in half-forgotten lumber rooms of +palaces and galleries from which they will be gathered in due course. +Velazquez owes a large part of his popularity in Spain to-day to the +measure of appreciation he has secured beyond the borders. Every +second-hand dealer in Madrid or Seville has a "genuine Murillo" to +offer the stranger. It is worth a thousand pounds; but as the dealer +is an honest man, he will sell it first for two hundred, then for one, +and finally for fifteen or even ten. But no second-hand dealer shows a +"genuine Velazquez." He knows that at best it could only appeal to +artists, and he knows them for strange folk endowed with much +enthusiasm, little money, and an embarrassing measure of knowledge of +the methods by which genuine old masters are created to supply a +long-felt want. + + + + +The plates are printed by BEMROSE DALZIEL, LTD., Watford + +The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh + + + + + + + IN THE SAME SERIES + + ARTIST. AUTHOR. + + VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. + REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. + ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. + GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. + BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. + ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. + BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. + FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. + REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. + LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. + RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. + HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. + TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. + LUINI. JAMES MASON. + TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + + _Others in Preparation._ + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Velazquez, by S. L. Bensusan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VELAZQUEZ *** + +***** This file should be named 30316.txt or 30316.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/3/1/30316/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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