Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/149

Rh VELAZQUEZ 133 Belvedere Gallery at Vienna. In such work as this, and in his studies by the wayside, Velazquez laid the founda tion of his subsequent mastery of expression, of penetra tion into character, and of rendering the life of his sitter to the quick. He saw the world around him teeming with life and objects of interest to the painter, and he set him self to render these. His manner is as national as that of Cervantes. He lived and died racy of the soil. The posi tion and reputation of Velazquez were now assured at Seville. There his wife bore him two daughters, all his family so far as is known. The younger died in infancy, while the elder, Francisca, in due time married Bautista del Mazo, a painter, whose large family is probably that which is represented in the important picture of later years in Vienna, the so-called Family of Velazquez. Mr Curtis, however, is inclined to believe that this picture is by Mazo. In the gallery at Madrid there is at least one portrait of this daughter, painted in these early days at Seville, as also a portrait of Juana his wife, holding a drawing-tablet on her knee. There was formerly in the possession of Lord Dudley another portrait of his wife by Velazquez, painted, perhaps, in the first year of their happy marriage. Of this early Seville manner we have an excellent example in El Aguador (the Water-Carrier) at Apsley House (London). Firm almost to hardness, it displays close study of nature. One can see in it the youthful struggle to portray the effects of light stealing here and there over the prominent features of the face, groping after the effects which the painter was to master later on. The brushwork is bold and broad, and the out lines firmly marked. As is usual with Velazquez at this time, the harmony of colours is red, brown, and yellow, reminding one of Ribera. For sacred subjects we may turn to the Adoration of the Magi at Madrid, dated 1619, and the Adoration of the Shepherds in the London National Gallery, in both of which we have excellent ex amples of his realism. The peasants offering their gifts of poultry are the hard-featured women of the market-place of Seville, pre-Raphaelite in their uncompromising truth fulness. Thus also in the St John in the Desert we find his peasant boy transformed into the saint. But Velazquez was now eager to see more of the world. Madrid, Avith its fine Titians, held out strong inducements. Accordingly in 1622, fortified with letters of introduction to Fonseca, who held a good position at court, he spent some months there, accompanied only by his servant. Here he painted the portrait of the poet Gongora, a com mission from Pacheco, which now hangs in the gallery at Madrid. The impression Avhich Velazquez made in the capital must have been very strong, for in the following year he was summoned to return by Olivares, the all- powerful minister of Philip IV., fifty ducats being allowed to defray his expenses. On this occasion he was accom panied by his father-in-law. Next year (1624) he received from the king three hundred ducats to pay the cost of the removal of his family to Madrid, which became his home for the remainder of his life. Weak and worth less as a king, Philip had inherited the art-loving propen sities of his race, and was proud to be considered a poet and a painter. It is one of the best features of his char acter that he remained for a period of thirty-six years the faithful and attached friend of Velazquez, whose merit he soon recognized, declaring that no other painter should ever paint his portrait. By his equestrian portrait of the king, painted in 1623, Velazquez secured admission to the royal service with a salary of twenty ducats per month, besides medical attendance, lodgings, and payment for the pictures he might paint. The portrait was exhibited on the steps of San Felipe, and was received with enthusiasm, being vaunted by poets, among them Pacheco. It has un fortunately disappeared, having probably perished in one of the numerous fires which occurred in the royal palaces. The Prado, however, has two portraits (Nos. 1070 and 1071) which are most probably studies for this picture. In them the harshness of the Seville period has disappeared and the tones are more delicate. The modelling is firm, recalling that of Antonio Moro, the Dutch portrait-painter of Philip II., who exercised a considerable influence on the Spanish school. In the same year the prince of Wales (afterwards Charles I.) arrived at the court of Spain. We are told that he sat to Velazquez, but the picture has dis appeared. 1 It was during this period also that he painted the hunting-scenes of which examples are to be found in the collections of Sir Richard Wallace, Lord Clarendon, and others, and which served him in the production of the great Boar Hunt of the London National Gallery, painted, however, in the later years of his life, a magnificent work in spite of some restorations. It was then too that he painted the groups of Court Gallants in their gay costumes, accompanied, as in the Boar Hunt, by their servants and dogs. The splendid Meeting of Artists (as it is absurdly named) in the Louvre was doubtless executed at a later time from studies taken in these early years, for it displays all the qualities of his finer work, space and air being thrown round the figures, which are touched with great mastery and ease. In 1628 Rubens visited Madrid on a diplomatic mission for nine months, and Velazquez was appointed by the king to be his guide among the art treasures of Spain. Rubens was then at the height of his fame, and had undertaken as a commission from Olivares the large pictures which now adorn the great hall in Grosvenor House (London). These months might have been a new turning-point in the career of a weaker man than Velazquez, for Rubens added to his brilliant style as a painter the manner of a fascinating courtier. Rubens had a high opinion of the talent of Velazquez, as is attested by Fuensalida, but he effected no change in the style of the strong Spaniard. He im pressed him, however, with the desire to see Italy and the works of her mighty painters. In 1627 the king had given for competition among the painters of Spain the subject of the Expulsion of the Moors. Velazquez bore off the palm ; but his picture was destroyed in a fire at the palace in 1734. Palomino, however, describes it. Philip III. points with his baton to a crowd of men and women driven off under charge of soldiers, while Spain, a majestic female, sits looking calmly on. The triumph of Velazquez was rewarded by his being appointed gentle man usher. To this was shortly afterwards added a daily allowance of twelve reals, the same amount as was allowed to the court barbers, and ninety ducats a year for dress, which was also paid to the dwarfs, buffoons, and players about the king s person truly a curious estimate of talent at the court of Spain. As an extra payment he received (though it was not paid for five years) one hundred ducats for the picture of Bacchus, painted in 1629 (No. 485 of the Madrid gallery). The spirit and aim of this work are better understood from its Spanish name, Los Borrachos or Los Bebedores (the Topers), who are paying mock homage to a half-naked ivy-crowned young man seated on a wine barrel. It is like a story by Cervantes, and is brimful of jovial humour. One can easily see in this picture of national manners how Velazquez had reaped the benefit of his close study of peasant life. The painting is firm and solid, and the light and shade are more deftly handled than in former works. Altogether, this production 1 In 1847 Mr John Snare of Reading exhibited a picture which had come from the sale of Lord Fife in 1809, and which he maintained to be the long lost work. This led to much controversy ; but the claim was rejected by experts and the picture is said to be iiow in America,