VELAZQUEZ: Painter and Courtier

by Jonathan Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1986

A smoothly written, painstakingly researched and lavishly illustrated biography of the enigmatic artist who immortalized the 17th-century court of Spain's Philip IV in paintings that, in some ways, prefigure the Impressionism of two centuries later. (Manet was an early Velázquez enthusiast.) Brown, Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Fine Arts at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, tells Velázquez's story from a dual perspective. He analyzes the artist's achievements as one of the world's foremost painters, while investigating how Velázquez's obsessive pursuit of honors and position eventually curtailed his artistic output and limited his impact on the course of art history. Brown's thesis is an intriguing one and he makes his points with skill and assurance, buttressing his arguments with copious notes and well-reasoned assumptions. Diego Veláquez, whose family may have been descended from the lesser Spanish nobility, aspired to a place beside the seats of the mighty from an early age. Owing to his extraordinary virtuosity (and a few well-placed supporters), he was able to realize his ambitions in short order (he was named court painter in 1623 at the age of 24). From then on, his fortunes and his artistic development were inextricably linked with the Spanish throne. As Brown points out, the linkage proved both a triumph and a tragedy. Never a prolific painter, Velázquez found his creative energies directed, by royal edict, toward turning out portraits of the king and queen, members of the court and such visiting notables as England's Prince of Wales (scouting Madrid for matrimonial prospects). Gradually even this sort of commission was set aside in favor of an extended art-collecting expedition to Italy for the monarch. It was during this trip that the young painter encountered the works of the Italian masters whose techniques he absorbed and refined, thus placing himself head and shoulders above his Spanish confreres. Despite this mastery, however, painting was eventually almost completely abandoned as Velázquez devoted more and more time to the decoration of Philip IV's palaces. It is ironic to think of Velázquez worrying over the placement of Titians, Van Dycks, Raphaels and Tintorettos while producing almost no masterworks of his own. What he did was assuredly dazzling, but. . .there's always that ""but."" For a study of a fascinating personality, as thorough as any we are likely to get very soon, Velázquez should be read by anyone interested in art--or the vagaries of human ambition.

Pub Date: April 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Yale Univ. Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION