FACES

Celebrations

By Alberto MENGONI

Aug 25 (THE GLOBE)

Velбzquez, only. Starting from 1619 it is the signature that the most impressive Spanish painter ever appended on his works. Before that year – he had only been admitted to Seville’s painters guild in the spring of 1617 – he was known as Diego Rodrнguez de Sylva y Velбzquez, son of a Portuguese impoverished aristocrat, Joao, and donna Jeronima Velбzquez a pure daughter of Seville, at that time, “el siglo the oro” (the golden century), Spain’s most important, populated and cosmopolitan city.

Quite frankly, the painter’s name was, to anyone facing one of his paintings, only a detail, so enraptured by all the rest, magically brushed on the canvas, he was. His name, yes, was something to rush to read but only after having recovered from the delighting shock of having watched one of his works.

Possibly one of the world’s top ten painters ever, surely Spain’s #1, Velбzquez took advantage of Seville’s cultural climate, where he was born on June 6th, 1599, and his parents understanding to back up his talent, so, aged 11, he entered Francisco Herrera the Old’s “bodega” to learn the art of painting. He learned it well, although he had to desert his master, “strict and mercyless man”, to join Francisco Pacheco’s atelier, however not before having absorbed Herrera’s teaching on the use of colors, realism and light and shade effects.

Quick of mind as he was, and dominated by a boundless ambition, young Diego excelled in his trade so much so that at the end of his apprenticeship, some 6 years long, passing the examination to practice the painting business, his examiners, Pacheco himself and Juan de Uceda, requested for him the right to exercise his art everywhere in the kingdom. An absolutely extraordinary condition due to the fact that that kind of examination had only regional limits.

Only 18, Velбzquez had surpassed his masters Herrera and Pacheco, as his early works demonstrate: “Portrait of a youngster” (1622/’23), “Portrait of Francisco Pacheco” (1618), “St. John at Patmos” (1618). The latter a work inspired by a similar one by Pacheco, Diego’s, however, was by far the best as for its volumetric and colors effects.

Meantime Velбzquez weds Juana, Pacheco’s daughter, who gives her face to some Diego’s first masterpieces, “Immaculate Conception”, 1618, “Adoration of the Magi”, 1619.

In Diego’s early years are predominant works depicting religious subjects such as the superb “Supper in Emmaus”, 1620. The force of the artist, however, emerges in peculiar representations combining three pictorial elements, portraiture, landscaping and still life. The latter, in Spanish “bodegуn”, is charmingly fitted into choral works almost casually, revealing on the contrary a perfect technique of unparalleled quality, as shown by the 1618 celestial “Old lady frying eggs”. A photograph would have not been more exact as for details.

Velбzquez is by now, 1622, mature to try Madrid, Spain’s capital since 1561, and on his father-in-law’s indication reaches Philip IV’s court but fails to portray the king. However he leaves a business card of his by making the portrait of the Court poet, Luis de Gуngora. It’s enough to be recalled one year later by the prime minister, from Seville himself, to portray the sovereign.

Diego and the king get together quite easily, the sovereign loves beauty, to him that’s what art is and Velбzquez is a master in creating beauty, so much so that he’s appointed chamber painter, becoming, that way, a member of the crowded Madrid court.

In the years between 1623 and 1628 Diego executes portraits of the king (1628), of his brother don Carlos (1626/’27) and of the prime minister don Gaspar de Guzmбn de Olivares (1624), unequivocably increasing his fame within the Court.

More than having been influenced by others, Velбzquez has influenced many artists, however Rubens’ stay in Madrid – almost one year in 1628 - , some scholars suggest, has let some affinities being detected between the two painters, such as in Diego’s “Drunkards” of 1629. But to a closer examination this masterpiece conducts to the conclusion that if an influence has to be discovered, that comes from Caravaggio, a contemporary painter operating in Italy, whose “Bacchus” belongs to the very same androgynous youngsters whom Velбzquez referred to for the Bacchus of his “Drunkards” painting.

Italy was at that time like the Parnassus for arts, so quite naturally Velбzquez wanted to go there on a mission of study to increase his knowledge on Italian painters and their techniques. He leaves Spain in August 1629 landing at Genoa. On the way to Venice he stopped in Milan and on the way back to Ferrara, Cento, Bologna and finally Rome, Italy’s most valid artistic centre. In the meantime he made profitable studies on Tintoretto, Titian, Veronese.

This Roman stage of the artist’s life is source of great satisfactions for the ambitious painter: he is introduced to pope Urban VIII and he’s allowed to live in the Vatican, moving later on to Villa Medici from where he continues his studies on classic forms of which a powerful demonstration is given by the superb “Vulcan’s forge”, painted in Rome in 1630. Also “made in Rome” in the same year is “Joseph’s tunic”, showing the only checked floor ever painted by Velбzquez, a clear sign of his attention to the perspective rules of the Italian school. Back in Spain he transfers some of the recently acquired Italian painting techniques on his “Deer head”, a painting started in 1626, completed only in 1630.

Now Diego is a fully blossomed artist who gives proof of his increased ability by making, in 1630, the first portrait of Philip IV and Isabella’s son, Baltasar Carlos. The Infante is portrayed with a dwarf placed before him, so to render the effect of a painting in the painting, a technique that Diego will use later on in his most famous work.

In the years following his Roman stay Velбzquez’s production is enriched by such masterpieces of religious nature like “Christ at the coloumn” (1632), “St. Thomas Aquino’s temptation” (1632), “St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul Hermit”, evidence of his absorption of Italian painting standards.

Right in those years the king decides to transfer the courst from Madrid’s “Alcбzar” to the “Buen Retiro”, a huge complex due to host thousand of persons, the royal family, courtiers and their families and their servants, in a self-sufficient entity.

It’s a wonderful opportunity for the painter whom is given the task of decorating the interior of the grand hall, the most prestigious area of the complex.

He had already ordered several paintings in Italy, but to exalt Spain’s monarchy all that bonanza is not enough so he sets to work and produces such “equestrian” paintings, all undoubtedly masterpieces, as “Philip IV” (1628/’34), “Isabella of France” (1629/’36), “Baltasar Carlos” (1635).

Other paintings of the same nature are “Prince Baltasar Carlos at the riding school” (1635) and “Philip III” that, painted in 1628, has been “corrected” after the painter’s return from Italy.

But the most impressive work painted for the Buen Retiro is “Breda surrender””, one of those canvasses planned by Velбzquez to celebrate Spain’s greatest military victories. This painting for the first time unveils Diego’s valid technique in “tromp-l’oeil” effect.

Proving to be as much as a good painter also a good interior decorator, Diego is given the task to provide the Parada Tower, the shooting lodge of the royal family, with portraits depicting the royals in hunting robes, so Philip IV, his brother don Fernando and his son prince Baltasar Carlos are painted so dressed in three different works from 1632 to 1636.

Two works are disputing the title of Velбzquez’s best painting: “Christ on the cross” (1631) and “Las meninas” (1656), although their very essence is so different that they shouldn’t even be compared. “Christ on the cross” is, of course, a religious subject, while “Las meninas” depicts a scene in the life of the royal family. The former is a solo painting, while the latter is a choral composition. The first is an indescribably blue work, full of misticism and silence, the second represents the intrusion of the Infanta Margarita in the painter’s studio when he’s portraying her parents. It even seems to hear the clamor of the little girl and her entourage during the sudden disruption of the Court ceremonial.

Both works, nevertheless, have in common the rigidity of the central character: Christ doesn’t seem abandoned in the perennial sleep of death, but looks like standing on the pedestal of the cross. Margarita, instead, seems to be lacking the dynamism of the curious girl that she supposes to be by having stormed the painter’s studio and looks like posing to be portrayed herself. But apart from this all the rest is absolute perfection.

Once more on the move, Velбzquez is sent by the king in Italy again: this time he has to purchase art pieces in the Belpaese on behalf of the sovereign and to be part of the group of Spaniards welcoming Maria Anna of Austria, the 15-year-old nephew and new-wife-to-be of the king.

From Genoa Diego goes to Milan where he sees Leonardo’s “Last supper”, then proceeds to Padua and Venice where he buys some Tintoretto and Veronese’s works and goes on to Bologna, Florence, Modena, Parma, Naples and finally Rome where, dropped his purchaser’s role, he goes back to palette, colors and canvas in the spring of 1650.

The resting period has been beneficial to the artist that in this second Roman stay produces some of his most impressive works, “Villa Medici cave en trance”, “Portrait of cardinal Camillo Massimi”, “Portrait of Juan de Pareja”, “Lady with fan”, all dating 1650.

The lady with fan seems to be causing the painter’s delay in going back to Spain, in fact the two have developed an affair resulting in the birth of Antonio in 1651, the son that Diego will never see.

After 2.5 years Velбzquez returns to Madrid in 1651, not before having made his most famous portrait, that of pope Innocent X, for which the artist did not want to be paid, knowing that his fame at this stage would have been immortal.

Also to his last Roman times is due Velбzquez only nude, “Venus at the mirror” (1651) in which the painter riproposes the picture in the picture technique, having painted in the central part of the work Venus’ reflexed image at the mirror.

At long last Diego is back in Madrid in June 1651 and like Santa Claus unloads his precious cargo of art pieces due to decorate the Buen Retiro: the king is so satisfied by the bonanza brought by his Court painter to nominate him “aposentador mayor” one year later. Actually he has become a sort of director of the Court life, a high level “butler” belonging by now to the king’s йlite.

The new functions deprive him of valuable time to be devoted to his trade, nevertheless he finds some to realize the new queen’s portrait (1652/’53), “Philip IV with a lion” (1652/’54), the “Portrait of Infanta Margarita” (1653/’54), “Las meninas” (1656), “Minerva and Aracne’s tale” (1657).

The last years of Velйzquez are dedicated by the painter to his own apotheosis. Knowing that “Las meninas” might very well be considered his best work, he includes himself in the canvas, depicted in the action of making the portrait of the royal couple, shown, as in the by now tested technique of the picture in the picture, reflexed on a mirror.

Also he pulled all the strings to obtain a certificate of nobility for which a Papal bull was issued by Alexander VII in order to make easier his acceptance by the Order of the Knights of Santiago. On June 12th, 1658 Velбzquez becomes Knight of Santiago, in a short while “Las meninas” painting gains an additional element: the painter’s dress is being decorated by the Santiago cross, sure sign of his nobility.

Two years later, returning to Madrid after the meeting he organized as “aposentador mayor” for the engagement of the Infanta Maria Teresa with Louis XIV of France, he falls ill and dies shortly after on August 6th, 1660, at the age of 61.

At his funerals, celebrated in an official form, there is all Madrid, and the Court grieves over the death of its “noble” painter.