Complete Works of Diego Velazquez (Delphi Classics) (Masters of Art Book 21) by Diego Velázquez & Peter Russell

Author:Diego Velázquez & Peter Russell [Velázquez, Diego]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Classic literature and art
Publisher: Delphi Classics
Published: 2016-01-18T05:00:00+00:00

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.

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