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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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The Early Modern Period
16th - 18th century
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The smooth transition from
the Middle Ages to the Modern Age is conventionally fixed on such
events as the Reformation and the discovery of the "New World,"
which brought about the emergence of a new image of man and his
world. Humanism, which spread out of Italy, also made an essential
contribution to this with its promotion of a critical awareness of
Christianity and the Church. The Reformation eventually broke the
all-embracing power of the Church. After the Thirty Years' War, the
concept of a universal empire was also nullified. The era of the
nation-state began, bringing with it the desire to build up
political and economic power far beyond Europe. The Americas,
Africa, and Asia provided regions of expansion for the Europeans.
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Proportions of the Human Figure by Leonardo da Vinci (drawing, ca.
1490)
is a prime example of the new approach of Renaissance
artists and scientists to the anatomy of the human body.
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Spain and Portugal
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1500-1800
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Voyages of discovery and merchant shipping made Portugal and Spain
the leading sea powers of Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth
century. Under Philip II, Spain also became the major force behind the
Counter-Reformation. A rapid economic and political decline took place
in Portugal after 1580 and in Spain after 1600, accelerated by the often
weak and conservative governments. This decline lasted until around
1750, when reforms associated with enlightened absolutism elsewhere were
carried out in both countries. In the wake of the French Revolution,
both countries fell under Napoleon's control.
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Philip IV
Philip IV, portraits by
Velazquez
king of Spain and Portugal
born April 8, 1605, Valladolid, Spain
died Sept. 17, 1665, Madrid
Main
king of Spain (1621–65) and of Portugal (1621–40), during the decline of
Spain as a great world power.
He succeeded his father, Philip III of Spain, in 1621, and, for the
first 22 years of his reign, Philip’s valido, or chief minister, was the
Conde-Duque de Olivares, who took the spread of the Thirty Years’ War as
an opportunity not only for resuming hostilities against the Dutch at
the end of the Twelve Years’ Truce of 1609 (1621) but also for an
ambitious attempt to restore Spanish hegemony in Europe, in close
alliance with the imperial branch of the Habsburg dynasty. The Spanish
armies won some conspicuous victories—for instance, the capture of Breda
from the Dutch (1626) and the defeat of the Swedes and Weimarians at
Nördlingen (1634)—but France declared open war in 1635, and Spain’s
early successes were offset, from 1640, by the separatist rebellions of
Catalonia and of Portugal (Portugal becoming independent in 1640 under
John IV of the House of Bragança).
Philip dismissed Olivares in 1643 and replaced him with Don Luis
Méndez de Haro, who remained in office until his death in 1661.
Thereafter the King had no valido, but frequently relied on the advice
of a nun and mystic, María de Ágreda, who corresponded with him on both
spiritual matters and affairs of state. By the end of his reign Spain,
weakened by military reverses and economic and social distress, had
become a second-class power.
Philip’s first wife was Elizabeth (Spanish, Isabel), daughter of
Henry IV of France; after her death in 1644, he married Maria Anna
(Mariana), daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand III. A poet and
patron of the arts, Philip was the friend and patron of the painter
Velázquez, many of whose works portray Philip and members of his court.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
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see also:
Velazquez
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Las Meninas or The Family of Philip IV
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Very likely none of these events would have been of any importance
for modern students of his work if they had not, as has often been
assumed, been reflected in the most famous of Velazquez' paintings,
his undisputed masterpiece, described by the Neapolitan painter Luca
Giordano (1634-1705) as the "theology of painting". This was his
monumental work Las Meninas or The Royal Family,
painted in 1656/57.
Las Meninas is one of the great problem pictures in
the history of art. An almost infinite number of interpretations
have now been proposed for the scene it shows, and countless
painters, from the seventeenth century to Francisco de Goya, Edgar
Degas and Edouard Manet, Max Liebermann and Franz von Stuck at a
later date, with Salvador Dalf and Richard Hamilton in modern times,
have felt inspired by this picture to offer their own versions and
studies of it. Most notably, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) vividly
updated the picture in a fifty-eight part series. At
first sight, however, Las Meninas seems to present no
problems at all, and indeed appears perfectly straightforward in its
sober geometry and good-humoured clarity.
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Velazquez
Las Meninas or The Family of Philip IV
1656-57
Oil on canvas, 318 x 276 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid
X-rays of this painting have shown that while Velazquez made many
alterations to the composition while he was working on it,
there is
nothing to indicate that he wished to depict himself as if looking
at the Infanta
or anyone else in the group behind which he is
standing.
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It is set in a room in the Alcazar, equipped by Velazquez as a
studio, and shows the heiress to the throne, the Infanta Margarita, with her court. Palomino names all those present. The
queen's maid of honour, Dona Maria Agustina Sarmiento,
one of the meninas, is kneeling at the Infanta's feet,
handing her a jug of water. The other maid of honour, Dona Isabel de
Velasco stands behind the princess, and beside her we
see the grotesquely misshapen female dwarf Mari-Barbola and the male
dwarf Nicolasico Pertusato; the latter, as Palomino points out, is
placing his foot on the mastiff lying in front of the group to
demonstrate the lethargic animal's good temper. Further back, almost
swallowed up in the shadows, are a man described only as
guardadamas - a guard or escort to the ladies -and the lady in
waiting Dona Marcela de Ulloa.
Velazquez is standing with brush and palette in front of a tall
canvas; we can see only the back of it. There are some large
pictures hanging on the back wall of the room. Two of them were
painted by Velazquez' son-in-law, Mazo, from models by Rubens, and
show scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, one of them another
version of the punishment of Arachne. The princess's parents, the
king and queen, appear in a dark frame below these pictures,
probably the glass of a mirror. To the right of the mirror, on a
flight of steps leading up to a doorway and a brightly lit adjoining
room, stands Jose Nieto, the queen's palace marshal.
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Velazquez
Las Meninas (detail)
1656-57
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
In the rear mirror, our attention drawn to it by the silhouetted courtier, we see
a reflection of the king and queen. Whether it actually reflects them, or the painting
Velazquez is working on, nobody knows for certain. Secure in their position, the royal
pair can easily afford to become a mere reflection behind their child. Even as pale
shadows, they can dominate, surely the subtlest of compliments.
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Velazquez
Las Meninas (detail)
1656-57
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Maria Sarmientio is giving her mistress, the Infanta Margarita,
water in a bucaro, a red pottery jug, handing it to her on a
tray. The children of Philip IV and his first wife Isabel de Bourbon
were dead by the date of this painting, except for the
eighteen-year-old Infanta Maria Teresa, who is not shown in this
group. Philip married Mariana as his second wife in 1649. and at the
time this picture was painted the Infanta Margarita, born on 12 July
1651, was her only child. The little princess's face is shown in an
aura of almost other-worldly beauty such as Velazquez hardly
achieved in any other work.
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Velazquez
Las Meninas (detail)
1656-57
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
There is a sense of life as actively lived, life held still for a passing moment
- not a moment of special significance, however; merely one of thousands passing every
hour, and this one lives on. The figures of the Infanta's entourage appear and recede in a
vast cave of shadows. All have been identified as historical personages except for the man
standing quietly on the right.
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Jan van Eyck
The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini
(detail)
1434
The witnesses to the wedding of the Florentine merchant Arnolfini
appear in the convex mirror on the back wall of the bedroom,
including, as the inscription above the mirror confirms, the painter
of the picture, Jan van Eyck.
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There are several basic questions that have been asked again and
again about this picture. What is Velazquez painting on the front of
the canvas that is hidden from us? Where did he stand in order to
paint the scene and himself in it? What is the source of the image
in the mirror - that is, just where in the room must the royal
couple have been standing for their reflection to appear? And
finally, is there any significance in the fact that the red cross of
the Order of Santiago is prominently applied to the artist's
clothing?
It was long thought that Velazquez - whom the Impressionists claimed
as a forerunner - was creating a picture without any metaphysical or
speculative reference, and was merely recording a fleeting moment in
permanent form, as if in a snapshot. According to this theory the
subject was no more than an ordinary scene of palace life.
Their Majesties were sitting for the painter one day when the
Infanta was called in to entertain them; she and her retinue are
looking at the royal couple, directly visible only to them and to
the painter, but seen half-length in the mirror by viewers of the
picture, while the palace marshal is turning enquiringly back to the
king and queen as he leaves the room.
A different hypothesis is put forward by art historians, who believe
that intellect and keen perspicacity, as well as the artist's eye
and hand, were involved in the painting of Las Meninas.
They have studied the work for possible models, without coming to
any particularly sensational conclusions. It has been possible only
to establish that Velazquez knew the portrait of The Marriage of
Giovanni Amolfini painted by Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) in 1434, which was in Madrid at the time, and may well have
picked up from it the idea of a mirror showing people who are not
depicted in the room.
The question is, why would Velazquez have chosen to give an
intellectualized rendering of his subject? One answer holds that the
picture has a poetic rather than a documentary meaning. Velazquez
has painted a portrait about the painting of a portrait, or as in
Las Hilanderas, he has painted a picture
about the making of pictures, and that is why he has placed himself
in such a prominent position - to glorify his activity, his art, and
himself as an independent creative artist. That is also, according
to this theory, why Luca Giordano saw the composition as the
"theology of painting", the highest form of intellectual or even
philosophical concern with art.
The largest number of interpretations have been put forward for the
mirror on the back wall, sometimes also thought to be a painted
canvas. The theory above holds that the mirror, as a conventional
attribute of Prudentia or Wisdom, indicates the wisdom of the royal
couple and makes the whole picture the expression of elevated
doctrines of virtue: it is a painted "mirror of princes". Velazquez
did not show himself painting King Philip and his wife - double
portraits were not usual in Spanish court painting of the time - but
the royal reflection in the mirror, bathed in light, stands for the
supreme and almost divine virtues of the monarchy. Scholars have
also wondered whether the laws of optics actually allow the royal
couple in front of Velazquez to be reflected - and whether the
dimensions of the canvas on the easel are suitable for a double
portrait. But what else can the painter be depicting on his canvas?
The Infanta? The scene we ourselves see as we look at his picture?
Or nothing at all? Countless investigations and mathematical studies
of the perspective in Las Meninas by architects and
engineers, art historians and theatrical experts, show that the
vanishing-point of the composition is the open doorway in the
background, which would also suggest that the source of the
reflection in the mirror, in line with the laws of optics, is not
directly opposite it but further left. The reflection of the royal
couple in the mirror thus seems to be vanishing out of reach.
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Velazquez
Las Meninas (detail)
1656-57
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Velazquez
Las Meninas (detail)
1656-57
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Velazquez
Las Meninas (detail)
1656-57
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Much learned industry has also been applied to the question of
location: in which room in the palace is this scene taking place?
Although the Alcazar burned down in 1734, it has been possible to
locate the site of the room in its historical ground plan. The
reconstruction of the room itself, however, is a matter of
controversy. In view of the nature of the picture, one recurrent
problem is, of course, how a court painter's social position could
allow him to depict himself so prominently in this picture, actually
within the circle of the royal family, while the king and queen
themselves are shown only indirectly.
Palomino says that the king thought particularly highly of Las
Meninas when it was completed, so clearly Philip did not
feel offended in any way by the picture, and indeed he probably gave
the concept his blessing in advance. It is unthinkable that
Velazquez would not have observed the requisite standards of
etiquette in his painting. But there are widely divergent opinions
of the way in which he expressed those standards, and speculations
on the extent to which he may have been secretly undermining them.
The glance that the painter turns on us from this picture certainly
has nothing of the subservient courtier about it. He radiates pride
and self-confidence - and is looking unwaveringly at the person
opposite him, whoever that may be.
The story goes that when Velazquez died, the king had Las
Meninas brought to his deathbed and with his own hands added
the cross of the Order of Santiago to the court painter's clothing
in red paint. This is only a legend, of course, although the sign of
the order was indeed added later, since the artist was not knighted
until 1659. However the cross came to be added, there is an artistic
density in this painting that can probably never be fully explored
and is therefore certain to produce more new interpretations in the
future.
We know that Velazquez was qualified to wear the red cross of
Santiago on his cloak over clothing adorned with silver lace, and to
carry a valuable dagger at his side and wear a heavy gold chain with
a scallop shell set with diamonds around his neck, by the time he
mingled with the dazzling company that assembled on the Isle of
Pheasants in the river Bidassoa on the Spanish-French border on 7
June 1660, to celebrate the wedding of the Sun King, Louis XIV of
France, to the Spanish princess Maria Teresa. Towards the end of his
life Velazquez had brought both his career and his art to the zenith
of achievement. Despite the riddles hidden in the painting of
Las Meninas we must not overlook its artistic mastery,
particularly as expressed in the figure of the Infanta Margarita
surrounded by people of lesser birth. For it was on the princess
that the dynastic hopes of the Spanish Habsburgs rested after the
death of Prince Baltasar Carlos.
A portrait of the Infanta is one of the last works Velazquez painted
(1659; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). It was sent to Vienna, to
the German Emperor Leopold I, to whom the princess was betrothed,
and with it went the portrait of Prince Felipe Prospero, also painted by the master in 1659. The young prince
was a sickly child from birth, and he died at the age of four. He
appears in this picture in a pink dress trimmed with silver, with a
translucent pinafore over it, and bearing some striking accessories:
various amulets were supposed to protect him against the evil eye,
and an amber apple was thought to ward off infections. The bloodless
face of the blue-eyed prince looks even paler due to the contrast
with the silver highlights in his straw-coloured fair hair. Pale
daylight falls in through the open door in the background.
Otherwise, the room is full of shadows that seem to threaten the
little figure. Palomino considered this portrait one of the finest
ever painted by Velazquez, and singled out the little dog on the
chair for special praise.
This portrait of the prince is the first in which Velazquez
expresses a strong sense of sadness, as if he guessed that he
himself would not paint many more pictures: no more divine figures
and kings, no hidalgos, dwarfs and jesters, no more popes and
saints, and no more simple, ordinary folk -with all of whom he had
filled his canvases, turning the same intensity and sensitivity on
each of his subjects.
Velazquez died on 6 August 1660. One of the greatest figures in the
history of art was laid out in the Alcazar, wrapped in the cloak of
the Order of Santiago. He was buried by night in the church of San
Juan Bautista, and many noble and royal dignitaries attended the
solemn funeral service. His wife survived him by only a week, and
was buried beside him. There is nothing left today of either the
church or the grave of Velazquez. But we still have his pictures.
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Siege of Breda, 1624
The Siege of Breda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Siege of Breda is the name for two major sieges of the Eighty Years'
War and Thirty Years' War. The Dutch fortress city of Breda fell to a
Spanish army under Ambrosio Spinola in 1625; it was retaken by Frederick
Henry of Orange in 1637.
The battle
Under Spinola's orders the Spanish laid siege to Breda in August 1624,
contrary to the wishes of their king. The city was heavily fortified and
defended by a garrison of 7,000. Spinola rapidly invested its defences
and hurled back a Dutch army under Maurice of Nassau attempting to cut
his supplies. The defenders held. In February 1625 a force of 7,000
Englishmen under Ernst von Mansfeld failed to relieve the city.
Justin of Nassau surrendered Breda in June 1625 after a costly
eleven-month siege.
The Siege of Breda was Spinola's greatest victory and one of Spain's
last in the Eighty Years' War. It was part of a plan to isolate the
Republic from its Hinterland.
In 1629, however, after Piet Heyn's capture of the Treasure fleet,
stadtholder Frederick Henry was able to capture the fortress city of 's-Hertogenbosch,
breaking the land blockade.
Spain's efforts in the Netherlands continued thereafter though
political infighting hindered Spinola's freedom of movement. Yet the
siege of 1625 captured the attention of the princes of Europe and, for a
while longer, Spanish armies continued to recapture the formidable
reputation they had held under Charles V.
This first siege is best known as the subject of Diego Velázquez's
1635 canvas, The Surrender of Breda.
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Ambrogio Spinola
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Ambrogio di Filippo Spinola, marquis de los Balbases
Spanish military officer
born 1569, Genoa [Italy]
died Sept. 25, 1630, Castelnuovo Scrivia
Main
an outstanding military commander in the service of Spain and one of the
ablest soldiers of his time. Though he won fame in the wars against the
Dutch Republic in the early 17th century, he was ultimately unable to
break Dutch military power.
Spinola was born into an old and powerful family of Genoa, an Italian
city-state that during his time was a close ally of Spain. To advance
the fortunes of his family, Spinola contracted for service in the
Spanish Netherlands and marched there in 1602 with a force of 9,000 men
he had raised at his own expense. With his disciplined troops, Spinola
showed himself a match for his major opponent, the skillful Dutch
commander Maurice of Nassau, in his successful one-year siege of Ostend,
which fell on Sept. 22, 1604. After that victory, Spinola was appointed
commander in chief of the Spanish armies in the Netherlands and the next
in line to head its government after Alfred, archduke of Austria, joint
sovereign of the region with his wife, Isabella.
Spinola continued to do battle with Maurice of Nassau and to exhibit
his mastery of siege warfare. He captured many fortified places. In 1606
he went to Spain, where he was forced to pledge his entire fortune as
security for the expenses of the Dutch war before bankers would advance
funds to the Spanish government. Spinola was never repaid and ultimately
suffered financial ruin. The next year he signed a suspension of arms
with Maurice and two years later played a major role in the negotiation
of a truce that lasted 12 years. During this entire period, Spinola kept
his Netherlands forces in readiness and directed repair and maintenance
efforts.
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Shortly after the opening of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), Spinola
seized nearly all of the Palatinate, a fertile and strategic German
region along the Rhine River (1620). He thereby removed a
Protestant-held barrier on the route by which money and men reached the
Spanish armies in the Netherlands; he was rewarded with the rank of
captain general. He returned to the Netherlands to assume command of the
Spanish armies in 1621, after Spain had decided to break the truce with
the Dutch. There Spinola gained his most famous victory, the capture of
the strategic Dutch fortress of Breda, after a long siege (Aug. 28,
1624–June 5, 1625). This victory drew attention throughout Europe and
served as the subject for the great painting by Velázquez, “The
Surrender of Breda.” After Breda, the lack of funds and the enmity of
the conde-duque de Olivares, the administrator for the Spanish boy-king
Philip IV, hindered Spinola’s military efforts. Also, the new Dutch
commander, Frederick Henry, prince of Orange, proved himself a
formidable opponent.
In 1628 Spinola left for Spain, where he reluctantly accepted an
appointment as general and plenipotentiary in the war with the French
over the disputed succession to the duchy of Mantua, Italy (1628–31).
Spinola arrived in Italy in 1629 and died there in the midst of the
siege of Casale. The title of marqués de Los Balbases, which had been
bestowed on Spinola, was all the compensation his family received for
the great fortune Spinola had spent in the service of Philip III and
Philip IV of Spain.
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The Surrender of Breda
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In the Salon de Reinos, the throne-room of Buen Retiro where
courtly ceremony was displayed to the full, symbolically
representing the monarchy to the outside world, a series of ten
pictures by Zurbaran on the theme of Hercules hung beside the
equestrian portraits of members of the Spanish ruling house of
Habsburg. There were also twelve battle scenes showing the latest
victories won under Philip IV. All the military paintings follow the
same standard pattern: they banish war itself to the background and
show the victorious commanders full-length in the foreground, where
the figures of rulers are usually placed in other works.
The battle pieces may well have been painted by Velazquez' artistic
colleagues Eugenio Caxes (1573/74-1634) and Vicente Carducho, or by
Zurbaran. They are not particularly original, unlike the paintings
by Fray Juan Bautusta Maino and (as one might expect) by Velazquez
himself. Maino's painting was taken from the subject of a play by
Lope de Vega celebrating the recapture of Bahia in Brazil by the
Portuguese and Castilians after its occupation by the Dutch.
However, the main theme of the picture is not so much the battle as
the noble magnanimity of the victors and their care for the wounded.
In The Surrender of Breda, painted in 1634 to 1635,
Velazquez too makes a fundamental statement about humane conduct
amidst the horrors of war. Many contemporary witnesses felt sure
that the long struggle for the Netherlands would determine the
future position of Spain as a world power. The most important
fortress in the southern Netherlands was Breda in Brabant, and the
strategic significance of the place was correctly assessed by Philip
IV 's best commander in the Thirty Years' War, Ambrosio Spinola, a
rich Genoese nobleman who had been awarded the Order of the Golden
Fleece. The commander of the fortress on the opposite side, Justinus
of Nassau, was another military man famous throughout Europe. After
a four-month siege and when all the provisions in the fortress had
run out, he was forced to petition for an honourable surrender.
Spinola allowed him to leave under conditions that were extremely
generous for the period.
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Velazquez
The Surrender of Breda (Las Lanzas)
1634-35
Oil on canvas, 307 x 367 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Velazquez
The Surrender of Breda (detail)
1634-35
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Velazquez met Spinola himself during his first visit to Italy.
In the picture he
emphasizes the commander's nobility and humanity.
Spinola is chivalrously
receiving his defeated opponent Justinus of Nassau,
laying a hand on his
shoulder in recognition of his enemy's feats,
and apparently ignoring the
humiliating act of the surrender of the key.
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The official surrender took place on 5 June 1625. The conquered army
was permitted to leave the city with dignity, carrying its colours
and its weapons. Spinola was waiting on horseback at the city gate
with a few noblemen, and magnanimously saluted the Dutch general as
he came first out of the fortress, followed by his wife riding in a
carriage.
News of the victory was greeted with relief and delight in Madrid,
and by Pope Urban VIII in Rome. The Pope congratulated Spinola on
washing his hands in the blood of the heretics. A play by Calderon
de la Barca on the subject of the siege of Breda was performed in
Madrid in November 1625. The dramatist makes Spinola say of his
adversary, in a proud yet modest phrase that has become proverbial,
"The valour of the conquered makes the conqueror famous". The young
Velazquez probably saw the production of this play at court. Now,
nine years later and after making many drawings as preparatory
studies, he was to paint a historical picture on the subject. During
his work he kept casting a critical eye on the events shown on his
canvas, correcting and painting over them, yet the final result
conveys a sense of great ease. Velazquez had painted one of the most
famous and accomplished war pictures in the history of art - and it
is surely the most deeply moving in human terms.
An impressive and dramatic scene of war unfolds on the huge canvas.
The viewer has an aerial view of the now silent battlefield in the
distance; smoke rises from fires beneath clouds and blue-grey mists.
We look across trenches, water-works and blockhouses; only Breda
itself is absent from the picture. The brightly lit background,
bathed in shades of pale blue and pink, suggests the landscape
backgrounds of Tintoretto. The Dutch are coming up from the depths
of the picture, passing from right to left through the double line
of upright Spanish spears. Velazquez makes this dense forest of
spears pointing to the sky so dominant a feature of the picture as a
whole that it has given the painting its sub-title of Las Lanzas.
By now the protagonists have assembled on the rising ground in
front, which is the main scene of the action and on the viewer's
eye-level. There are nine figures on each side: the Dutch to the
left, the Spanish to the right. The group on the left opens up and
the Dutch commander steps forward, his glance sad and weary,
sketching a bow as he hands over the key of the city. With
delicacy of feeling, Spinola bends down to him and lays his mailed
hand on his enemy's shoulder with a courteous smile - a sympathetic
and a noble gesture. Behind him, a groom forces a magnificent
nervously prancing horse to one side.
The group of defeated men is constructed more loosely and with more
variety of lighting and colour than the well-disciplined company of
victors: the Dutch are weather-beaten soldiers like the musketeer on
the left of the picture; the Spanish are more elegant and
sophisticated. The wall of spears, the weapons of the undefeated tercios, the famous Spanish infantry, emphasizes their still
menacing power, at the same time lending the military commander's
humanity and merciful conduct its full weight and providing a foil
for it.
The bearing and appearance of the soldiers display Velazquez'
inexhaustibly rich orchestration of their feelings and their states
of mind. In some of the faces he has taken his inspiration from
types of his own invention, for instance the figures in the Forge of
Vulcan. The officer with chestnut-brown hair to the right
behind Spinola represents Don Pedro de Barberana, a knight of the
Order of Calatrava, whom the court painter had already portrayed in
1631/32. The vibrant application of paint, the painter's
extraordinary understanding of the way in which light and the
atmosphere can change colours, the symphony of brilliant and muted
tones that fills the picture, making it sparkle and glow with joyful
harmonies, the manner in which the composition concentrates
dramatically on the surrender of the key while the formal rhythms of
victory and defeat unfold, all mark a crucial watershed in the art
of Velazquez.
The Surrender of Breda, which contains no allegorical or
mythological references, is indisputably the first purely historical
picture in modern European painting, and among the outstanding works
of world art. In another manner, and one that is always striking and
sometimes curiously moving to modern observers, Velazquez shows
human nature in all its diversity when he presents the gallery of
dwarfs and jesters who lived at court and whose task it was to
preserve the king from boredom in the midst of routine etiquette.
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Velazquez
The Surrender of Breda
(detail)
1634-35
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Velazquez
The Surrender of Breda (detail)
1634-35
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Velazquez
The Surrender of Breda - Self-Portrait (detail)
1634-35
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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