[Illustration: Cover art] MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR EDITED BY -- T. LEMAN HARE VELAZQUEZ ===================================================================== PLATE I. --THE INFANTE DON FERNANDO OF AUSTRIA (Frontispiece) This picture was painted for the Torre de la Parada, and shows KingPhilip's younger brother in hunting costume. Velazquez seems to haverepainted a part of the canvas which is to be seen in the Prado, Madrid. [Illustration: Plate I. ] ===================================================================== VELAZQUEZ BY S. L. BENSUSAN ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR [Illustration: Title page art] LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO. 1907 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. THE METHOD AND INFLUENCE OF VELAZQUEZ II. THE PAINTER'S EARLY DAYS III. VELAZQUEZ IN MADRID IV. A RETROSPECT LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Plate I. The Infante Don Fernando of Austria . . . . . . . Frontispiece In the Prado, Madrid II. Las Meniñas In the Prado, Madrid III. The Infante Philip Prosper In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna IV. The Infante Don Balthasar Carlos In the Prado, Madrid V. Antonio the Englishman In the Prado, Madrid VI. Admiral Adriano Pulido Pareja In the National Gallery, London VII. Donna Mariana of Austria In the Prado, Madrid VIII. The Princess Maria Theresa of Austria In the Prado, Madrid INTRODUCTION [Illustration: Velazquez] It is a curious truth that Spain in these days of her decline exercisesalmost as much control over the mind of the world as she exercised overits territories in the days of her great empire. Cervantes inliterature and Velazquez in art seem destined to secure for theircountry a measure of immortality that throws into the background thememory of such people as Carlos Quinto, Philip II. , and those otherlesser lights who made the name of Spain respected or detestedthroughout Europe and South America. If science and art are destined, as some altruists hope, to unite the world in a bond that defies thearbitrary boundaries made by rulers, then the name of Diego de SilvaVelazquez will stand high in the list of those whom the world delightsto honour, for people who are opposed diametrically on all questions ofpolitics and faith find ground upon which they may meet in security andamity when they stand before the pictures of the great Spanish master. And Cervantes, who used words instead of colours to express the life hesaw around him, would redeem Spain from insignificance if she had neverowned a colony, and had never sought to step beyond her own borders todevelop the arts of peace or follow the paths of war. Perhaps it would be hard to find more diverse opinions than those thatare heard in the studio. Artists see life through the medium of manytemperaments, they are notoriously intemperate in their enthusiasms. There are schools of painting to suit every conviction, and the workthat one man would give his all to possess would not find hanging spaceupon the wall controlled by another. But before Velazquez even artistsforget their controversies; he stands, like Bach and Beethoven in theworld of music, respected even by those who do not understand. Nocontroversy rages round him; he has marched unchallenged to the highestplace in men's regard. ===================================================================== PLATE II. --LAS MENIÑAS This picture was painted about the year 1656, and, now in the Prado, isconsidered one of the greatest works of the master. It presents theInfanta Margarita attended by her maids of honour, while Velazquezhimself is shown painting the portraits of Philip IV. And his secondwife Mariana of Austria, who are seen reflected in the mirror. [Illustration: Plate II. ] ===================================================================== It is interesting to note that a reputation unrivalled in the world ofpictures is founded upon a comparatively small number of works. One ofhis latest critics reduces the pictures of Velazquez now in existenceto eighty-nine, while acknowledging that some have disappeared from theroyal palaces of Spain and cannot be traced. This critic, Señor DonAureliano de Beruete--a connoisseur, a collector, and a worker in thebest interests of art--is perhaps a little too severe. He will notadmit to his catalogue a portrait like that of Admiral Adriano PulidoPareja, which, despite some inferior workmanship, can show considerableclaims to be regarded as genuine; but even if all the disputed oneswere admitted, and such a list as the late R. A. M. Stevenson publishedwere accepted without that far-seeing critic's own reserve, we shouldnot have as many pictures to represent the forty years of the artist'slife as Sir Joshua Reynolds was known to paint in a single year. Velazquez has left very few drawings, and these are of smallimportance; there are but two acknowledged engravings; and to limitstill further our sources of knowledge, the artist's correspondenceseems to have been lost; while the Memoirs which Velazquez was said tohave drawn up when Philip IV. Sent the pictures to the Escorial are nowadmitted by the best authorities to be the work of another man. I THE METHOD AND INFLUENCE OF VELAZQUEZ In dealing with the life and work of the Spanish master, even in themodest fashion of this little monograph, one must bear in mind the factthat Velazquez, in the eyes of his contemporaries, was not only anartist--he was a court painter; and pictures other than portraits wereof comparatively little importance to Philip IV. And his circle. Artborrowed most of her importance in sixteenth and seventeenth centurySpain from the fact that she was the handmaid of Holy Mother Church. Velazquez was a court official who chanced to be a cleverportrait-painter, and his promotion tended ever to take him furtheraway from his art. With the increase of state duties the claims uponhis time grew more and more difficult to meet, and, when he rose in theclosing years of his life to be Grand Marshal of the Palace, entrustedwith the ordering of state functions and missions to distinguishedforeigners, his art became entirely a secondary consideration. Thestudio was no more than a place of refuge for the artist in the hourswhen he might forget that he was an official. If Velazquez had notbeen compelled to sacrifice the best part of forty years' activity tothe ridiculous formalities of court life, the world might have beenricher to-day by scores of pictures worthy to rank by the side of "LasMeniñas" and the portrait of Pope Innocent X. The painter might havefound outside court circles far more inspiring sitters than those whomhe was compelled to paint, for it takes all that even a Velazquez cangive to a portrait to make a Philip IV. , a Mariana of Austria, or evenan Isabella of Bourbon, reveal their dominant characteristics withoutcaricature; indeed one feels that the interest belongs to the pictureand not to the sitter. The success is one of tone, of harmony and ofline, of sure handling directed by an inward vision. Because of gifts lying beyond praise, the painter has preservedseventeenth-century Spain for us as far as court circles represent it;but among the many charges laid to the account of Philip IV. Must beadded that of limiting the range and crippling the capacity of anartist who cannot be placed second to any man. When we come to analyse his work we find that its qualities are not ofa sensational kind. Velazquez makes no appeal through the medium ofbrilliant pigment; his great contemporary Rubens used colour in farmore striking fashion. Velazquez loved grey and silvery tints, and inthe years of his maturity understood relative values perfectly. Heknew, too, exactly how far he could go, and never made experiments insearch of qualities that were not his. Although he had a certainquality of delicate imagination, he was a realist, and could not paintwithout a model; he never acquired a mannerism, or applied to onesitter the treatment that some artists seem to keep for types. Everyfigure he set upon canvas has its own individuality, and, whileVelazquez, like other artists, had manners and methods that belong tofixed periods of his life, it is not easy to set down in cold print ananalysis of the causes that make up his effects. He had no tricks;everything that he did was clear, simple, and withal inimitable. Hundreds of men have copied his pictures; none has been able to copyhis method. With his death his influence upon art ceased. His geniuslay buried in the grave with him, and did not suffer completeresurrection until the nineteenth century was turning towards itssuccessor, though Raphael Mengs had done all he could to make hismerits known a hundred years before. Even to-day, we may be said to bein the first stage of our enjoyment of the master's work. There are atleast fifty good books upon the subject of Velazquez' life and art, written in three or four languages, and all published in the last halfcentury; there must be many more to come, for every generation seesgenius in the light of its own time. So much for literature. In art the painter has influenced very manymoderns. Manet, Courbet, Corot, Millet, Whistler, are among the menwhose work shines in the light of the Prado, and the list might beprolonged indefinitely, for all earnest art workers go to Velazquez, confident that whatever their aims and ideals, he will confirm andstrengthen what is best in them. They know, too, that they may returnagain and again, and that the rich stores of guidance and encouragementin the pursuit of ideals are as inexhaustible as the barrel of mealthat did not waste, and the cruse of oil that did not fail, in thehouse of the widow of Zarephath. II 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 thedominating factor in European politics. Philip II. Had come to the endof a reign of more than forty years; Philip III. Had just reached thethrone. The painter was not born in the atmosphere of court life, butin the very Catholic city of Seville, then as now a fatal place forthose who cannot withstand the manifold temptations to lead a lazylife. Happily for the boy his parents had not inherited the Sevilletraditions; his father came from Oporto, which, being a seaport town, has no lack of mental and physical activity. The spirit of paintingsettled at a very early age upon young Diego de Silva Velazquez--thesecond name by which he is universally known belonged to his mother'sfamily--almost before he was in his teens he was working in the studioof Francisco de Herrera, architect and painter. The temperaments ofmaster and pupil could not fuse; there was sufficient trouble to leadDon 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 uponlife, and enjoyed the respect of all men. Moreover his studio was themeeting-place for many of the distinguished folk of the city. In thevery early years of their association Pacheco understood that his youngpupil was not like other lads, that he possessed an individuality thatcould not be repressed or directed into the usual channels, and insteadof resenting this new element, he sought to direct it wisely andkindly, thereby laying Velazquez under a debt of gratitude that thepainter never repudiated. Indeed there were stronger ties in themaking, for in the spring of 1618, when the young artist was on thethreshold of his wonderful career, Pacheco gave him his daughter Juanafor 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 evenby his "Book of Portraits of Illustrious Personages, " and otherquaintly titled works from his pen. He lives because he helped to makeVelazquez a great painter, and recorded his impression of hisson-in-law's earliest works, the various "Bodegones, " of which severalmay be seen in London to-day. Others are in Berlin and St. Petersburg. From these pictures of the secular life Velazquez passed to religioussubjects--"Christ in the House of Martha" (National Gallery) and the"Adoration of the Magi" (Prado) belong to these early years. ===================================================================== PLATE III. --THE INFANTE PHILIP PROSPER This picture hangs in the Imperial Gallery of Vienna. It is the workof the painter's last period, and shows us the little son of Philip IV. By his second wife. The lad died some two years after the picture waspainted; it has been restored, not too cleverly. [Illustration: Plate III. ] ===================================================================== In 1622, Velazquez, already the father of two children, made his firstjourney to Madrid, and was allowed to visit the royal palaces. He didnot stay long in Castile, and his return to the capital was broughtabout by the divinity that shapes men's ends. Philip III. Was dead;his son Philip IV. Had selected as friend and adviser the CountOlivarez, son of the Governor of the Alcazar in Seville. Olivarez hadmany friends in the city that wears the "Modo" for its badge, inrecognition of unswerving loyalty to Alfonso the Learned. Doubtless hehad heard about the work of the young painter and had seen someexamples of it, and he wished to strengthen himself in the capital bybringing accomplished men from his own city to official posts inMadrid. So he sent for Velazquez, who journeyed a second time to thenorth, now in the company of Pacheco, and on arrival there painted alost portrait of a Gentleman Usher, Fonseca by name. This picture didfor Velazquez what the portrait of Admiral Keppel did for Reynolds, andbefore the excitement died away, the young King Philip IV. Had deignedto promise a sitting to the clever Sevillian. The success of the firstpicture of Philip IV. (apparently the early one now in the Prado) wasso complete that the king ordered all existing portraits of himself tobe removed from the palace, and gave the painter an order of admissionto his service with a salary of about two pounds five shillings amonth! Under the skilled hands of the artist we are permitted to seethe tall, gloomy lad grow up a dull, reserved man, and we read in hisface a part at least of the causes of Spain's ultimate downfall. III VELAZQUEZ IN MADRID Of the painter's work at court in those early days we hear a littlefrom Pacheco, but the story of the times is more or less obscure. Aclever portrait-painter was not a very interesting person in the eyesof a Spanish grandee. He was classed with the court buffoons anddwarfs who existed merely to amuse. Indeed, portraiture was not abovesuspicion in the eyes of some fanatics, who held that art existed toserve the Church, and should not seek secular employment. There aredocuments extant showing that Velazquez received eight pounds for threeportraits, of which one is lost and the other two (Philip and the Countof Olivarez) are in Spain. In 1625 the painter received a present ofthree hundred ducats, which was followed by a pension of the same valueand a gift of free lodging, and, in 1627, by the appointment to thepost of Gentleman Usher. There is no doubt but that the king wasattached to his young court painter in a certain undemonstrativefashion. Pacheco tells us that Philip used to visit the artist'sstudio constantly, reaching it by way of the secret passages of whichthe palace was full. The year 1628 marks an event of the first importance in the life ofVelazquez, for Peter Paul Rubens came on a diplomatic mission toMadrid, charged by his government to pave the way to the conclusion ofpeace between England and Spain. Rubens was then about fifty yearsold. He stayed nine months in the Spanish capital, and, despite hisdiplomatic duties and the gout, found time to paint an extraordinarynumber of pictures, including five of Philip. He also copied theking's Titians. Velazquez was entrusted by Philip with the work ofentertaining Rubens, and showing him the art treasures of Spain, andthe friendship that grew up rapidly between the two artists wascreditable to both, because Rubens, then at the zenith of his fame, recognised the amazing gifts of the young Spaniard, and Velazquez neverallowed the brilliancy of the ambassador-artist to tempt him from thepaths that he had chosen to follow. There are some who think thatRubens exerted a great influence upon his young friend's art, but wecannot pretend to trace it. Rubens may have widened his mind; he couldnot influence his hand or eye. Shortly after Rubens left Madrid, Velazquez completed his picture "LosBorrachos, " now in the Prado, and one of the acknowledged masterpiecesof his first style, though the tone is dark, and some of the figures donot blend with their surroundings. In the late summer of the same yearVelazquez left Spain for Italy, in the company of Don Ambrosio Spinola, who was going to take command of the Spanish forces. Soldier andartist parted at Milan, and the latter went to Venice, where he stayedwith the Spanish ambassador and copied some of Tintoretto's pictures. Thence he went by way of Ferrara to Rome, the honoured guest of arelation of the Count of Olivarez, and he busied himself copying oldpictures and painting new ones. Like many of the artists who go forthe first time to Italy, he was influenced in some degree by Guido, whowas then living. He painted his own portrait, which is to be seen inthe Capitoline Museum, and went from Rome to Naples, returning toMadrid in the early part of 1651. ===================================================================== PLATE IV. --THE INFANTE DON BALTHASAR CARLOS This is one of the Prado pictures of King Philip's eldest son by hisfirst wife, the unfortunate little prince who died while he was yet aboy. When this picture was painted Don Balthasar Carlos was six yearsold. [Illustration: Plate IV. ] ===================================================================== It might be mentioned in this place that the painter's eldest daughterwas growing up, and that he married her three years later to one of hispupils, the artist J. B. Del Mazo. This clever artist, who was treatedby his master Velazquez as Velazquez had been treated by his masterPacheco, is held by critics to be responsible for many picturesgenerally ascribed to his father-in-law. There is a picture in theWallace Collection known as the "Lady with the Fan, " which is thoughtby no less a critic than Señor Beruete to represent the young FrancescaVelazquez, who became the Señora del Mazo when she was only fifteenyears old. Shortly after his return to Madrid, Velazquez came under the influenceof El Greco, who had died in 1614, and left some wonderful picturesthat may be seen to-day in Toledo. This fact is important, not thatthe influence resulted in imitation, but because it was distinctlyinspiring, and Greco is a painter who is coming slowly before thepublic. It cannot be doubted that his influence on artists throughVelazquez has been very deep and abiding, particularly in portraiture. In the years following the return from Italy, Velazquez painted some ofthe pictures of the little prince Don Balthasar Carlos, the king's son, who was born in 1629, and died in 1646, the year of his betrothal toMariana of Austria. There are many pictures of this interesting ladwho, had he lived, might have done so much to save his country. Theearliest was painted as soon as Velazquez returned from Italy, and isat present in Boston. The next in date would seem to be the one in theWallace Collection, and following this comes the well-known picture ofDon Balthasar in hunting dress, now in the Prado, the one with thesmall greyhound seen on the right, just coming into the canvas. Thenwe have the famous picture of the young prince on his spiritedAndalusian pony, which is perhaps the most popular of all; andsucceeding that in the order of the painting comes the portrait that, in the writer's opinion, is the best of the series. It hangs in theImperial Museum in Vienna, and was painted when the prince was abouteleven years old. Doubtless there are other portraits of the ill-fatedboy, whose features seem to suggest that he had inherited from hismother some of the qualities that his father lacked, and that had hebeen spared to succeed his father in 1665, he would have handledaffairs with vigour and intelligence. In 1638 Philip's daughter Maria Teresa was born, and the history of theartist's life in Madrid becomes uneventful or lost. Probably onaccount of the increasing unrest abroad and the decline of the Spanishfortunes, Velazquez' earliest patron, the Count of Olivarez, wasdisgraced in 1643, the year in which Condé helped to break the power ofSpain at Rocroi. Although the condition of the Spanish Empire was very unfavourable, andPhilip IV. Must have known long hours of anxiety and unrest, there isno reason to believe that he withdrew his company or his favour fromthe best beloved of his court painters. Spinola had taken Breda fromJustin of Nassau, and the surrender was promptly immortalised byVelazquez in the picture "Las Lanzas, " which draws so many pilgrims toMadrid to-day. It was painted for the palace of Buen Retiro, andcuriously enough--since it records one of the few successes of Spain inthe Low Countries--the subject passed out of men's memory, and for manyyears nobody knew why the artist had painted it, or what it was allabout. Some time between the painting of this picture and the fall ofOlivarez, Murillo came to Madrid and became a pupil of Velazquez, whohad just received a grant of five hundred ducats to be paid annually byorder of the king. In 1644 Velazquez accompanied Philip on a journeythrough Aragon, and two or three years later he was appointed Inspectorof Buildings, a post involving much tedious work, and helping to keepthe painter from his studio. He seems to have bestowed a certainamount of labour on portraits painted by other men, in order to bringthem into harmony with the collection that Philip was making. It isdifficult to deal with this matter within limited space because thedetails are distinctly controversial, but it is as well to rememberthat some of the portraits attributed to Velazquez in the Prado Galleryare of people who were dead before Velazquez was painting, so theycould not have sat for him; and in the days of Philip IV. It wasconsidered no disgrace for a man to repaint another artist's canvases. Moreover, a painter to the court of Spain was not supposed to carry anuneasy conscience about with him. It was his duty to obey orders andto accept from his superiors as much guidance and direction as theywere gracious enough to give him. In 1649 the king granted Velazquez permission to return to Italy inorder to find pictures for a Royal Academy of Fine Art to beestablished in Madrid. By this time Philip was a widower, though hewas on the point of marrying his niece, Mariana of Austria. She hadbeen affianced to the Infante Don Balthasar Carlos, but he had beendead for three years, and the Spanish throne was without an heir. Velazquez visited Genoa, Venice, Milan, and Padua, and brought backpictures by Veronese and Tintoretto. Rome and Naples were revisited, and the famous portrait of Pope Innocent X. , of which one copy is inSt. Petersburg, and the other in the Doria Palace in Rome, was painted. The former is a bust and a study; the latter is a three-quarter length, and is painted with a wonderful blend of red and white. It was copiedby Sir Joshua Reynolds, who declared that it was the finest work he hadseen in Rome. What would he have thought of the later masterpieces bythe same hand? The portrait was copied by other men too, and there isno doubt that the copies were in some cases sold for originals. By the time Velazquez returned to Madrid in 1651, at the urgent requestof his royal master, the court of Spain was _en fête_. Philip's wife, to whom he had been married two years, was only seventeen, and requiredamusement. Functions of every sort, excursions, entertainments on amost sumptuous scale, were the order of the day, and because Velazquezwas now at the summit of his achievement, because he could paintpictures that will endure as long as men care for art, it is difficultindeed to forgive Philip IV. For making him Marshal of the Palace. Tobe sure the post was well paid, the salary being about £400 a year withlodging in the Treasure House, but the duties were endless. The king'saction was on a par with the custom that prevails in our own ForeignOffice, of sending a man who understands China thoroughly to serve thecountry in Peru, and one who has mastered Russian politics to Portugal. ===================================================================== PLATE V. --ANTONIO THE ENGLISHMAN This was one of the dwarfs in the service of the king. His is one ofthe last portraits painted by Velazquez. The figure is life size, andhangs in the Prado at Madrid. [Illustration: Plate V. ] ===================================================================== Happily Velazquez, for all that he was regarded in Madrid as a ratherlazy man, found time when he was Marshal of the Palace to paint thebest of all his portraits. He was honoured by Queen Mariana ofAustria, the king's second wife, who sat for him on several occasions, and the results may be seen in Paris, Vienna, New York, and Madrid. Some of the portraits, painted without a suspicion of flattery, showthe absurd head-dress, the false hair, and the extraordinary crinolinethat were worn at the time, in all their ugliness, and force us to seehow great was the distance lying between the royal house and any senseof beauty. Velazquez was not perhaps very happy with this work, because Nature had endowed Philip's wife with a face that was almost asdull and unresponsive to emotion as that of her lord and master; butafter a time children were born, and the court painter had a moresympathetic task. He has left portraits that are quite charming of theInfanta Margarita and the Infante Philip Prosper; he painted both ofthe children while they were very young. In point of fact, neitherlived to grow up; doubtless they would have been uninteresting enoughif they had been spared. The Infanta Margarita is to be seen inVienna, in Paris, and in Madrid, and she of course is the centre of thefamous picture, "Las Meniñas. " Prince Prosper was painted byVelazquez, when no more than two years old. There were two otherchildren, Prince Ferdinand and Prince Carlos II. , but the former was nomore than a year old when Velazquez died, and Carlos was unborn. Ofthe four children born to Philip IV. By his second wife, three diedyoung. In the last years of his life, when the pressure of court duties andthe ill-will of highly placed fools must have been hard to bear, Velazquez found time to paint some of his greatest masterpieces. "TheMaids of Honour" ("Las Meniñas"), "The Spinners" ("Las Hilanderas"), "Æsop, " "Menippus, " "The Coronation of the Virgin, " and the "Venus withthe Mirror, " are all the ripe fruit of the painter's last decade. Hisart had matured; adversity had thrown him back upon his work; it wasthe solace of the hours that were not claimed by absurd officialduties. Who shall say that the scant consideration he received fromparasites and courtiers was an unmixed evil? The men who despised thepainter because Philip favoured him may have helped to mould hischaracter, may have enabled him to detach himself completely from hisown official character when he could lay aside the garb of office andturn to his beloved canvases once again. The portraits of Philip inhis last years, those of his second wife and her children, those of thedwarfs too, belong to the years between 1651 and 1660. It was a custom of the unhealthy and depressing Spanish court in whichthe queen lived in an armour of corsets and crinoline, and might not betouched by any of her faithful subjects upon pain of death--the courtin which the king was compelled to preside at the _autos da fé_--tokeep dwarfs as playthings. Perhaps because they were ugly and deformedthey came quite naturally into the court environment. The earliestportrait of Don Balthasar Carlos shows him in company with a dwarf, andthere were about the court many other unfortunate creatures whomVelazquez painted between 1650 and 1659. There is more than a suspicion in the minds of many of his biographersthat the half-concealed contempt with which Velazquez was regarded incourt circles left him small choice of company; that he was rated withdwarfs and outcasts because he worked with his hands; and of course nohidalgo, who was a perfect master of the art of time-wasting, couldtake seriously any low-blooded creature who earned his right to live byworking. If Velazquez had been on the same footing as Rubens--had heenjoyed the same position that Goya, with no greater officialappointment, was to hold a little more than a century after hisdeath--we may presume that the dwarfs would not have been painted, andthat Velazquez' art would have been given to the service of theblue-blooded gentlemen who were making as big a muddle of Spanishinterests as their country's worst enemies could desire. One hesitatesto say that they would have been less interesting sitters, because weknow that nobody, however dull and stupid in appearance, could fail tobecome interesting at the hands of the painter. It is fair toremember, too, in defence of the Spanish attitude, that the years weregiven not to the arts of peace but to those of war; that leisure wasscanty, intrigue unceasing, and the austerity of life was made greaterby the strong and merciless grip of the Church. Formality andsuperstition marched hand in hand in a court whose ruler, if we mayjudge by his portraits, had forgotten how to smile. Then again, theatmosphere of the Madrid court, for all its dulness and secrecy andunhealthy ways, was not as it became under Charles III. , when Godoyplayed the part of Count Olivarez, and the Countess Benavente, theDuchess of Alba, and other women as frail as they were beautiful, didnot hesitate to indulge in open intrigue with the king's painter. Turnto the canvases of Velazquez and you will not find a woman who wasfascinating enough to have been worth the trouble and danger of anintrigue. The wives of Philip IV. Could not but have been virtuous, and would have had but small sympathy with pretty women. To be surePhilip IV. Had many mistresses, but he did not ask his court painter torecord their beauty. Before Velazquez returned to Madrid from his second visit to Italy, heseems to have painted the portrait of the dwarf known as "El Primo, "now in the Prado. This man, known in private life as Don Louis deHacedo, accompanied Philip on a tour, and he seems to have been astudious person, because the artist has depicted him with book, pen, and paper, and given him a refined expression. The others have littleto redeem their ugliness and deformity. The child of Vallecas seems tobe the dwarf who figures with Don Balthasar Carlos in the first picturethat Velazquez painted of the unfortunate young prince, the one that isnow in America. He has grown a little older and a little more ugly inthe canvas that is devoted entirely to his portrait; he does not weargood clothes, but a coarse green coat with stockings to match. TheIdiot of Coria is also dressed in green, though his garments are alittle richer, but Don Antonio seems to have been a person of someimportance. He is pictured in the Prado standing beside a beautifulmastiff almost as big as himself, and he wears a ruddy brown dressworked with gold. He carries a large plumed hat in his hand. Sebastian de Morra, who sits facing the audience, has one of the mostwonderful heads ever set on canvas by the artist. This dwarf too isdressed in the green costume that would seem to have been worn by thedwarfs attached to the court of Spain. In addition to the littlecompany of dwarfs there were buffoons at the court, and of theseVelazquez painted Pablillos, who is known as "the comedian, " and DonJuan of Austria, whose portrait is a triumph of harmony in colour, thepink of mantle and stockings contrasting admirably with black doubletand cape. ===================================================================== PLATE VI. --ADMIRAL ADRIANO PULIDO PAREJA This picture may be seen in the National Gallery. It is signed anddated 1639, and was purchased from the Longford Castle Collection in1890. Señor Beruete holds a strong opinion that it was not painted byVelazquez. [Illustration: Plate VI. ] ===================================================================== In the last years the painter seems to have gone a little further downin the social scale in search of his sitters, for the "Æsop" is abeggar, and "Menippus" is no better. To all these sufferers andoutcasts Velazquez responded with a sympathy that is not less clearlyrevealed than the technique that gives so much enduring delight toartists the world over. In the final decade of the painter's life Philip seems to have givenhim no more than two sittings. Perhaps the artist's "Mars" and his"Venus with the Mirror" gave offence in Madrid, where the nude was onlyaccepted if it was painted by some artist who had won his fame outsidethe Iberian Peninsula. The whole trend of life in the court of Marianaof Austria was opposed to the presentation of the nude in art. The twolate pictures of Philip, of which the one is in the Prado and thesecond in our National Gallery, are quite the most finished of all hisstudies of his royal master. The face, free from even a suggestion ofhuman interest or enthusiasm, has no emotion whatsoever savedisillusionment and sadness. The spectator gets a suggestion that lifehas resolved itself into a long series of formal duties and formalenjoyments, and that neither suffices to make it worth living. Duty tothe world at large and to the vast empire slipping from his grasp seemsto be all that holds Philip; and when we consider that he had lost hisfirst wife and her promising son, and of his children by his secondwife one or two were dead already; that dissipation and anxiety hadsapped his energies, and superstition had crabbed his intelligence; itis not strange that the face should be as it is. In 1658 Philip conferred upon Velazquez the knighthood of Santiago, andmoney was deposited on his behalf by a friend who understood thepainter's financial straits to pay for the inquiries relating to hisgenealogy. In spite of the king's wishes, the Council appointed toinquire into the antecedents of the painter refused to admit him, though Velazquez supplied many proofs that his blood was pure and hisorigin honourable. At last, Philip applied to the Pope Alexander VII. For a dispensation in the artist's favour, realising that the Vaticanwas a Court whose jurisdiction was unlimited in its scope. The Popewas complaisant: he could hardly be otherwise to Philip IV. ; he sent abrief that enabled Velazquez, after long delays, to obtain the muchcoveted order. The story that Philip bestowed it upon Velazquez as areward for the picture "Las Meniñas" is one of the pretty fables thatmust be disregarded, and it seems likely that Philip only exertedhimself on his painter's behalf because he wished him to superintendthe arrangements for the festivities that were to celebrate themarriage of the Infanta Maria Teresa with Louis XIV. If we may readcharacter in physiognomy, there is little risk that Philip would havebehaved generously without cause. Velazquez left Madrid for Irun, on the Franco-Spanish frontier, inApril 1660. The work was harassing; he was not a _persona grata_ withhis colleagues, and none sought to lighten his burdens. He returned tothe capital at the end of June, when Madrid is not fit to live in, andwas taken ill a month later. Hard and unremitting labour, the follyand bitter opposition of men who were not worthy to clean his palette, the inconveniences and delays of travel in Spain, and the tendermercies of several Spanish doctors of repute, seem to have combined, with a bad attack of fever, to bring a troubled life to its closingscene. The end came on the 6th of August 1660, when, to quote SeñorBeruete, "he delivered up his soul to God, who had created him to bethe admiration of the world. " The body was decorated with the ornaments of the knights of Santiagoand buried in the parish church of St. John the Baptist. Within a weekhis devoted wife, Juana de Pacheco Velazquez, followed him to a restthat no ceremonial of the Spanish court could disturb. Strange as it may seem to those who know nothing of Spain, the pettyworries and vexations to which Velazquez had been subjected did notcease with his death. It was decided by the authorities that thethousand ducats paid to the dead painter for superintending the worksof the Alcazar must be returned, and in order that the claim might bemet, the contents of the artist's studio and some of his furniturewould seem to have been seized. King Philip recorded his graciousdistress at this decision, but did nothing to overrule it. Litigation followed, and after some years the claim to the thousandducats was withdrawn by the authorities, the affairs of the master werewound up for all time, and the stigma of debt was removed from thememory of a man who never received a tithe of his deserts. Philip IV. Took Juan del Mazo, the painter's son-in-law, to be courtpainter in Velazquez' place, and the appointment is worth noting, because it is to this worthy man's wonderful facility for echoing hisfather-in-law's style that we owe the presence of so many imitations inthe world's public galleries and private collections. Some of theseclever copies of lost pictures have remained unchallenged until recentyears, and whether this be a tribute to the capacity of del Mazo or areflection upon the capacity of critics, is a question lying beyond thescope of this little book. But it is not difficult to understand thatthe renown of Velazquez was on the increase for a few years after hisdeath, and that Mazo, who was clever and poorly paid, and had a sincererespect for his father-in-law, should have remembered that there is nogreater flattery than imitation. IV A RETROSPECT It is in no spirit of extravagance that one ventures to say that thelife of Velazquez was a long and tragic struggle against surroundingsdetrimental to the full and natural expression of his genius, nor is itsurprising that the people who had followed his career withindifference saw very little matter for comment when he died. Therewere a few useless and pompous ceremonies associated with hisobsequies, and Spain went on with the daily task, the common round, unconscious of her loss. So many material possessions were passingfrom hands too weak to hold or to administer them that the death of anartist could not be noticed. ===================================================================== PLATE VII. --DONNA MARIANA OF AUSTRIA This picture was brought from the Escorial to the Prado in 1845. Thelady was the second wife of Philip IV. , and would have been the wife ofDon Balthasar Carlos had he lived. [Illustration: Plate VII. ] ===================================================================== Fair-minded critics may hesitate to say with Spain's enemies thatcivilisation ends with the Pyrenees, but it is certain that the Spanishattitude towards life has differed from that of other countries to anextent that has left indelible impressions upon art and literature. Velazquez carried a little of the Andalusian sun to Castile, but theheavy cloud that settled upon the Spanish court speedily obscured it. Life for the painter was an affair of constant struggle againstfinancial and social difficulties, of endless work for unresponsivemasters; and the labour was not lightened by any of the associationsthat helped the great masters of the Italian School who had some shareof light and honour. The funereal pomp of the Spanish court; thestrange climatic conditions of Madrid, where you may pass in a momentfrom a blaze of sun that scorches to a blast of icy wind that strikes afatal blow at the lungs; the hard and unattractive landscape; theproud, cruel, and impassive people who cannot even feign an interest insuch affairs as art or letters, all served to leave their impressionupon the painter's work. We cannot imagine that any artist who workedin Madrid in the seventeenth century could become a colourist after themanner of the Venetians; he would not see the colour unless he went toCatalonia or Andalusia and entered into their stirring national life. Then again Spain was influenced by the Moors, and eastern art is moreconcerned with harmony than colouring, more concerned to blend neutraltints than present rich tones. The writer has seen many pictures in the studios of modern Madrid thatare inspired directly by the Italians, for nowadays Spanish artistsflock to Italy, where they learn to imitate the Venetian colourschemes, and to become third-rate echoes of old masters. There are afew men who paint interesting pictures in Spain to-day--Pradilla andCarbonero are among the best; but Spain does not hold a great artist. The last of all died in exile in Bordeaux in the early days of the lastcentury, and left his gifts to the French School of Manet. Velazquez could never have become a flamboyant colourist. A few of thepictures in the Prado have some reds and pinks; for example, "LasHilanderas, " in which there is a red curtain, and the picture of Philipon horseback, in which the king wears a pink scarf. There are highcolours in "The Coronation of the Virgin" and a few others, but as arule Velazquez wrought with a subdued palette, and sought to weaveharmonies in grey and silver. Bright colours are an expression of thejoy of life, and this was unknown to the Spaniards of Castile. Murillohas colour, but then he was always an Andalusian. Just as Velazquezborrowed very little from his sitters and gave a great deal, so heclaimed next to nothing from the primary colours, and he gave a coloursense that is indescribably beautiful to silver and grey. This was hisdeliberate choice and judgment, but it is impossible to forget thatsurroundings and associations must have had a great deal to do with it. Men who live lives that are complete in the fullest sense of the termhave a natural craving for glowing hues, and may find Velazquez dull ifthey come to the Prado from the Academy of Venice; but unless theirtastes have become wholly vitiated, unless their eyes are sufferingfrom a surfeit of light, they will soon learn to find that their bestbeloved masters would not bear transplanting. They belong to the soilof the country they worked in, while Velazquez, like Rembrandt, cantravel to any climate, and shine with unclouded glory in anyatmosphere. It is impossible to imagine that Rubens could have paintedwith the palette that served Velazquez, but the greater of the two menhas given the world an invaluable lesson in appreciation, and becauseNature is full of exquisite colour harmonies that are quite subdued intone it is well that we should have been taught to appreciate them. Velazquez himself declared that Raphael did not please him, but Titiandid; he found in him the greatest of all the Venetians. And yet it ishard to say that he took anything from the admired master, because withVelazquez admiration and imitation are things apart. He did not evenimitate El Greco, the painter whose influence upon the world of art isnot yet fully acknowledged or understood, and he did not copy Rubens, whose splendours would have dazzled a weaker man. Velazquez merely saw certain truths in Greco's handling of portraiture, and accepted them. Throughout his life he made a steady improvement inthe quality of the work done, but the changes came throughintrospection rather than from any outside influence. His pictures are divided by many critics into three styles, which maybe divided roughly by his visits to Italy. In the early days the painton his canvas was very thick, the shadows were heavy, the compositionwas not always conclusive or well devised. The one quality was thatirreproachable throughout all the years was the drawing, which wasalways masterly. From the days of the early "Bodegones" down to the"Meniñas" nobody could find a picture in which his drawing is obviouslyat fault; although in speaking of Velazquez it is of course difficultto separate drawing from painting. As he grew up the sense ofcomposition and colour harmony became stronger and stronger, and thefaults passed. At the same time, Velazquez was a severe critic of hisown work, and a careful examination shows that even those pictures towhich no suspicion can attach were retouched and corrected in themaking. In this country one secures little more than a glimpse of the master'swork. The National Gallery has nearly a dozen pictures, but there arecertain questions about the authenticity of some of them, and thePhilip in the Dulwich Gallery is rather more than doubtful. TheWallace Collection has a few beautiful examples of Velazquez, and afterthat there are about fifty private owners of pictures that cannot bereadily seen. Perhaps a considerable proportion of these works would, if subjected to very careful scrutiny, reveal themselves as copies byMazo or others. In France there are half-a-dozen fine pictures in theLouvre. Germany can show some in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich; Hollandhas one or two. There are less than a dozen in all Italy. TheHermitage Gallery in St. Petersburg has five or six, and Vienna abouttwice as many; but to see Velazquez one must go to Madrid. The Museodel Prado has over sixty of the artist's pictures, and though a smallproportion of these have scarcely a touch of the master's hand, all hisgreatest work has found a resting-place here. Las Lanzas, LasHilanderas, Las Meniñas, Philip IV. On horseback, Don Balthasar Carloson his pony, the Crucifixion, the Coronation of the Virgin, the Dwarfs, Æsop, Menippus--all these are to be seen in the Prado; the greaternumber being in the Salon of Isabella, an octagonal room in which onemay spend long hours. The writer, on the occasion of his last visit toMadrid, made a note of the number of visitors to the famous octagonalroom during the four mornings he spent there. In the course of sometwelve hours the room was visited by some twelve people! It is onlyfair to say that it was not in the tourist season; the month was June, and nobody stayed in Madrid from choice. ===================================================================== PLATE VIII. --THE PRINCESS MARIA THERESA OF AUSTRIA This daughter of Philip IV. Became Queen of France. The picture waspainted when she was about ten years of age, and consequently belongsto the last period of Velazquez' work. It was hung in the Alcazaruntil some time in the eighteenth century, when it was transferred tothe Prado. [Illustration: Plate VIII. ] ===================================================================== There are pictures by Velazquez to be seen in Madrid outside the Prado, but for the most part they are in private houses, and are notaccessible to everybody. Seville boasts half-a-dozen canvases by hergreatest painter, and there are a few elsewhere in Spain; but it may besaid that those who know the Salon of Isabella have seen Velazquez athis best, and that those who have seen his other pictures and have notvisited the Prado, do not know Velazquez at all. Perhaps there are pleasant surprises yet in store for the art world, for many pictures are still untraced. Doubtless some have beendestroyed by fire and others are in half-forgotten lumber rooms ofpalaces and galleries from which they will be gathered in due course. Velazquez owes a large part of his popularity in Spain to-day to themeasure of appreciation he has secured beyond the borders. Everysecond-hand dealer in Madrid or Seville has a "genuine Murillo" tooffer the stranger. It is worth a thousand pounds; but as the dealeris an honest man, he will sell it first for two hundred, then for one, and finally for fifteen or even ten. But no second-hand dealer shows a"genuine Velazquez. " He knows that at best it could only appeal toartists, and he knows them for strange folk endowed with muchenthusiasm, little money, and an embarrassing measure of knowledge ofthe methods by which genuine old masters are created to supply along-felt want. The plates are printed by BEMROSE DALZIEL, LTD. , Watford The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh IN THE SAME SERIES ARTIST. AUTHOR. VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. LUINI. JAMES MASON. TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. _Others in Preparation. _