Velasquez
NAME: Velazquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva
ACHIEVEMENTS: One of Spain’s greatest portrait painters,
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Baptized on 6 June 1599, Seville, Spain;
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: 6 August 1660, Madrid, Spain. Aged 61
DISCIPLINE: Painter
FIELD: Art
LANGUAGE: Spanish
PARENTS: Father: Juan Rodriguez de Silva; Mother: Gerónima (or Jerónima) Velazquez
SIBLINGS: Juan (b. 1601); Fernando, Silvestre, Juana, Roque and Francisco (b. 1617)
SPOUSE: Juana de Miranda, daughter of Francisco Pacheco, 23 April 1618
CHILDREN: Francisca (b. 1619), Ignacia (b. 1621, died in infancy)
EDUCATION: Apprenticed at age 12, September 1611 to Francisco Pacheco; tested as a master painter in 1613.
MAJOR WORK: “Las Meninas” (“The Ladies in Waiting”)
LIFE AND TIMES:
In September 1611 Diego Velázquez was formally apprenticed to Francisco Pacheco, a Madrid painter. Pacheco admired the work of Raphael and <influenced by> Titian*, and taught Velázquez to learn about art by copying from antique sculptures. Two years later Velázquez passed tests as a "Master painter of religious images, and in oils and everything related,” which allowed him to paint professionally in Seville, to set up shop and to take assistants and apprentices. In 1618, he married the boss’s daughter, Juana Pacheco.
During the early years of his career, Velázquez made a name for himself by painting food-themed works, called “bodegons” which were generally found in taverns and public houses, not in residences. He returned to these works in between his portraits. One of the best of the bodegons was: “The Waterseller,” which he painted in 1627.
In August 1623, he gained immediate fame and fortune by painting a portrait of King Phillip IV that was so impressive that two months later he was named Painter to the King, given a salary of twenty ducats a year plus a commission for each of his paintings.
The painting was unique for showing the king as he was in real life, “…with a flabby face, roundish at the chin, and a short neck.” In later paintings, in order to emphasize the quasi-divine nature of the king, who was thought to derive his right to rule directly from God, Velázquez would idealize the king’s features, making the chin more firm and pointed, and lengthening the neck.
This first painting was thought for many years to be lost. But Velázquez was merely dissatisfied with his work. In the mid-1960’s, X-ray technology showed that the painting was underneath the full-length painting of “Phillip IV in Black,” also by Velázquez, in the Prado Museum.
Velazquez painted other members of the king’s family, including Philip’s wife, Isabella, and his sisters: Anne of Austria, who married Louis XIII of France; Mary, who married Ferdinand of Hungary; and Margaret, a Barefoot Carmelite nun.
In 1628, <a pal was> Rubens* visited the court of Spain on a diplomatic mission. The only painter Rubens sought out while he was there was Velázquez. The two spent a great deal of time together, discussing art and watching each other work. After meeting Rubens and working with him during his nine-month stay in Spain, Velázquez requested time off from his duties to the royal court so he could visit Italy, for more study, and to collect art for the king’s growing collection.
While in Italy, from August 1629 until 1631, Velázquez studied works by Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese. Velázquez was given rooms at the Vatican Palace. At the Vatican, he studied Michelangelo’s “Last Judgement” and the paintings of Raphael. His sponsor in Rome was Cardinal Francisco Barberini, a nephew of Pope Urban VIII.
While in Rome, Velázquez undoubtedly became acquainted with the works of (and influenced) <influenced> Bernini*, the favorite artist of the Pope. Later he stayed at the Villa Medici, and studied the antique sculptures in that collection.
When Velázquez returned to Madrid in 1631, he found that King Phillip IV had refused to have his own portrait painted during his favorite artist’s absence. In addition, he had insisted that Velázquez be the first to paint a portrait of his new son, the crown prince Baltasar Carlos. When the Infanta Maria Teresa was born, Velázquez also painted her portrait.
In addition to his duties as Painter to the King, Velázquez served as an art consultant for foreign monarchs, including <worked for> Charles I* of England. King Charles had, at the request of Inigo Jones, asked that copies of artworks in the collection of King Phillip IV be made for his own collection, and Velázquez advised the workmen who made the molds of the antique heads. When the copies arrived in England, it was thought that two of the works were incorrect. But the English ambassador explained that the art that was sent was “certified to be the right [ones] by Diego Velázquez, the Kinges painter a man of great judgement.”
Velázquez rarely took on apprentices. His most illustrious “pupil” was Juan Murillo, who never apprenticed under Velázquez, but lived in Madrid from about 1648-1650 and almost certainly studied the works in King Phillip’s collection.
Velázquez went with King Phillip IV to Aragon in 1644, and painted a large military portrait of the king on horseback, wearing the armor he wore when he went out to meet his soldiers after the defeat of the French army at Fraga. The portrait was so large, a carpenter had to make a special easel for the canvas, and cut a new window into the wall of Velázquez’s house so that he could see to paint.
Phillip’s queen died in 1644. Two years later, Prince Baltasar also died, at the age of seventeen, of a cold. The king sent Velázquez to Italy to escort his next queen, his niece Marianna of Austria, back to Madrid for the wedding.
Velázquez had by now risen from the post of Painter to the King, to Marshal of the Palace, and Gentleman of the Bedchamber with Key, posts usually reserved for high-ranking military officers. These appointments involved the responsibility for overseeing the king’s finances, particularly as they pertained to his artwork collection, and his numerous architectural works, in addition to arranging Royal journeys, entertainments, and Court festivities.
While on a second trip to Rome in 1649 or 1650 (accounts vary), Velazquez met with many artists who were also working in Rome at the time, including <met> Poussin*. Among the paintings Velázquez bought for the King of Spain’s massive collection were two works by Titian, two by Veronese, and additional works by Tintoretto. Those paintings, which have survived a number of fires over the centuries, form the core of the collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Velázquez died of a fever on August 6, 1660, shortly after organizing the wedding between Maria Teresa of Spain and Louis XIV of France (June 7, 1660).
ASSESSMENT: Velázquez was the foremost Spanish painter of his time. He developed a technique of modeling faces using color only, not light and shade (adding white or black), that few artists have been able to master. His work influenced generations of artists, and defined the grand Spanish style of portraiture.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: <influenced> Goya* was greatly influenced by the work of Velázquez.
ONELINER: Velazquez, major Spanish artist
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Harris, Enriqueta, Velázquez, Cornell University Press/Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford, England, 1982
López-Rey, Jose, Velázquez’ Work and World, New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, CT, 1968
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