Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/522

 492 Painting in Castile. and sunshine, has here braved the contrary difficulty. His whole picture is in a half-light, and, playing with such a difficulty, he has succeeded in producing the most wonder- ful effects of light and perspective. The exclusive lovers of colour place Las Hilanderas as the first of his works. La Fraga de Vulcano (the Forge of Vulcan) is also reckoned among his masterpieces. The Surrender of Breda, which is usually called in Spain las Lanzas (the Lances), is still a better work (Fig. 163). The subject of it is very simple. The Dutch governor is presenting Spinola, the general of the Spanish forces, with the keys of the surrendered town. But of this Velazquez has made a great com- position. On the left there is a part of the escort of the governor; his soldiers still retain their arms, arquebuses, and halberts. On the right, before a troop, whose raised lances have given the picture the name it bears, is the staff of the Spanish general. Velazquez has concealed his own noble and earnest face under the plumed hat of the officer who occupies the farthest corner of the picture. Every point in this immense picture is worthy of praise. As a whole it is grand, and the details are thoroughly artistic and full of truth. To pass from the Surrender of Breda to the Drinkers (Los Borrachos), is to pass from an epic poem to a drinking song, and yet, instead of being inferior to the other, it is perhaps even greater. It is merely a comic scene, and yet it is one of those pictures of the beauty of which no description can give an idea. It is said that Sir David Wilkie went to Madrid expressly to study Velazquez, and that, still further simplifying the object of his journey, he only studied this one picture.