Velázquez: Unparalleled fluency, boldness and inventiveness

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The generous dimensions of this stunning book allow a rare chance to see how Velázquez achieved his signature style

Velázquez: The Complete Works by José López-Rey and Odile Delenda

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez was born in 1599 in Seville to recent immigrants from Portugal (at that time, a possession of the Spanish crown). He apprenticed to Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644) and drew acclaim in his late teens for painting bodegones (genre scenes combining studies of servants at work and still-life elements). They are masterpieces of realism, combining the best of the Spanish dry manner with Caravaggio’s  theatricality.

Velázquez married Pacheco’s daughter and in 1622 moved to Madrid, where he became a painter to the court. Painting portraits of the royal family and high-ranked nobility became his staple work. Painter-diplomat Rubens visited the Spanish capital over 1628–9 and Velázquez spent time with him. Watching Rubens paint and learning to appreciate the style of Titian through Rubens’ eyes helped free Velázquez of his smooth, dry style. A stint in Rome (1629–30) as an envoy of the Spanish crown gave Velázquez an opportunity to spend time studying Italian painting. It is the work after this period that is in the style most typically associated with Velázquez – exploiting the full plastic potential of oil paint, working fast and leaving brushwork open and bold, with highlights flickering on dark backgrounds.   

Velázquez’s output over his second and third periods in Madrid (divided by a final visit to Rome) included history paintings (The Surrender of Breda (1634–5)), mythological-cum-genre scenes (The Myth of Arachne (c. 1644-8 or c. 1657)) and numerous portraits, including those of jesters and dwarfs as well as royalty. The portraits of dwarfs and buffoons have given Velázquez the reputation of a compassionate observer of human nature, not dissimilar to Rembrandt.   The various genres collide in the enigmatic masterpieceLas Meninas (1656). This large canvas has been interpreted in various ways: as an allegory of painting, a genre scene, a group portrait, a bid for royal favour. This new publication serves the large works especially well, as it presents many details that are too high above head-height to be observable when you stand in front of the actual painting. The upper portion of the large painting The Surrender of Breda is given a double-page fold-out (almost 120cm in width). 

That Las Meninas survives at all is through sheer good fortune. In 1734 a catastrophic fire at the Royal Alcázar in Madrid, home to the royal collection, destroyed many Velázquez canvases and badly damaged others. A number of paintings were saved by being lowered (or dropped) from upper-storey windows. The poor state of preservation of paintings is frequently lamented by López-Rey and illustrations show why. Damaged pictures were cropped mercilessly or disastrously overpainted.

Las Meninas was one of the painter’s last works. Occupied by court duties, he rarely painted during his last years. After a break from painting, he had only just completed one of two royal portraits when he died of fever in 1660. The last unfinished portrait was completed by workshop assistants.

This grand tome, supplied in a carrying case, is a revised edition of the canonical catalogue raisonné of Velázquez’s painting, first published in 1976 and since republished twice. Author López-Rey died in 1991 and Odile Delenda was invited to add information for this new edition. Changes in ownership, recent restoration and the results of scientific analysis have been added to the catalogue section. This large (41 x 30cm) and heavy volume consists of chapters arranged chronologically, each with a biographical text and a series of full-page colour plates. This is followed by 124 illustrated entries for paintings and five for drawings. A number of drawings are known to have been destroyed over the years. There are a concordance and a bibliography.

This edition includes recently discovered paintings and newly attributed paintings. These include Portrait of a Man (c.1631–4), sold at auction in 2011 for £3m. Another addition is The Education of the Virgin (c.1617), retrieved from the stores at Yale University Art Gallery; it is illustrated here in a state of incomplete restoration. The catalogue section does not take account of the nine ‘new’ paintings and they have not been assigned catalogue numbers by Delenda.

Technical details are thorough and many have been revised since restoration. The text is informative and provides numerous perspectives on matters of interpretation and dating, generally settling on one side or another of disputed aspects. There are relatively few illustrations of lost works by Velázquez or comparative images of works by other artists, meaning that readers wanting to research specific works or periods may have to turn to specialist publications.

Details are reproduced in numerous large close-ups, demonstrating the artist’s unparalleled fluency, boldness and inventiveness. It is easy to see what so excited first Manet,  then later the Impressionists,   in this brushwork. Faces emerge fully modelled, expressive and convincing from smudged highlights and touches of impasto over thinly applied underpainting. Embroidered drapery ‘pops out’, with dashes of yellow ochre capturing the gold thread of in the opulent costumes. These illustrated details are alone a master class for practising painters.

This volume is impressively comprehensive and comprehensible, richly illustrated and thoroughly covetable as an object. Any art library that aspires to completeness should have a copy of Velázquez: The Complete Works.

Velázquez: The Complete Works  by José López-Rey and Odile Delenda is published by  Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 2014.  416pp., fully illustrated, large hbk in carrying case, £64.99, $150.