2 papers Art history visual analysis (5-7 pages)
Reborn0804
unit2_baroque_spanish.pptART HISTORY 132
Baroque: Spanish
Diego Velázquez
(1599-1660)
- biography:
- 1623: became court painter to Phillip IV
- 1628: Rubens’ visit to SP influenced V to visit Italy
- 1629: lives in Italy for year and a half
- 1649: second visit to Italy
- style: “Realist” tendency
- influence of Caravaggio’s interest in surface textures
- color: Venetian richness (re: Titian)
- brushwork: “painterly”
- light: “chiaroscuro” & fascination w/ depicting fleeting effects
- themes:
- genre scenes
- mythological
- royal portraits (political & religious)
Velázquez
- Waterseller of Seville (c. 1625)
- scene: genre
- theme: mercy
- tendency: realism
- age & facial features
- clothing
- composition: stable; intelligible
- color: muted, narrow range
- light/shadow: tenebrism & chiaroscuro
- spatial order: shallow
- overlapping
- foreshortening
- surface textures:
- reflections
- beads of water
(Left) Detail from VELÁZQUEZ’s Waterseller of Seville (c. 1625)
vs.
(right) detail from CARAVAGGIO’s Entombment (c. 1600)
Detail of water droplet on surface of jug
in VELÁZQUEZ’s Waterseller of Seville (c. 1625)
Velázquez
- Feast of Bacchus (1628-29)
- title: a.k.a. “Los Borrachos”
- patron: Phillip IV
- narrative: mock homage
- figures: ancient god w/ realistic humans
- spatial order: shallow
- perspective: limited to overlapping and foreshortening
- composition: frieze-like arrangement
- bilateral groupings
- left ancients
- right moderns
- color: muted earth tones
- light/shadow: manipulated
- bleached-out Bacchus
- evenly distributed humans
(Left) Detail from VELÁZQUEZ’s Los Borrachos (c. 1625)
vs.
(right) CARAVAGGIO’s Bacchus (c. 1600)
Velazquez
- Los Borrachos (con’t.)
- contemporary figures:
- realistic, vigorous naturalism
- ruddy faces
- leathery skin
- plain garments
- complex gestures, gazes & poses
- enlivens narrative, despite frieze-like composition
Velázquez
- Surrender at Breda (1635)
- significance: inspired by 1st trip to Italy
- subject: history painting
- theme: SP/Catholic triumph/conquest over Dutch (Protestant)
- narrative: courtly tone modified from Perugino’s Delivery
- composition: Classical frieze-like arrangement
- figures: densely packed
- landscape: panoramic
- brushwork: “painterly”
- color: vibrant
- light: evenly distributed
- perspective: aerial
(Left) detail from VELÁZQUEZ’s Surrender of Breda (c. 1635)
vs.
(right) detail from PERUGINO’s Italian Early Ren Delivery of the Keys (c. 1475)
(Left) VELÁZQUEZ’s Spanish Baroque Surrender at Breda (c. 1650)
vs.
(right) UCCELLO’s Italian Early Renaissance Battle of San Romano (c. 1450)
Velázquez
- Maids of Honor (c. 1650)
- title: a.k.a. Las Meninas
- genre: royal group portrait
- theme: implicit Humanism
- comparison to Alexander the Great visiting his painter (Apelles) in studio
- narrative: spatial complexities
- foreground daughter, attendants, & court painter
- mirror reveals King Phillip IV & Queen
- doorway chamberlain
Velázquez
- Las Meniñas (con’t.)
- self-portrait
- painting as endeavor worthy of courtly recognition
- pose: frontal
- V ordained into royalty
- insignia of Royal Order of Santiago
- stylized red cross
- did not receive honor of knighthood until 1659 (three years after execution of painting)
Velázquez
- Las Meniñas (con’t.)
- Princess Margarita
- five-year old daughter of Philip IV & second wife
- brushwork: painterly
- elaborate dress & jewels
- multiplicity of textures
- details dissolve into intuitive, chaotic mixture of color
IMAGE INDEX
- Slide 2: VELÁZQUEZ. Self-portrait (1640), Oil on canvas, 45.5 x 38 cm., Museo Provincial, Valencia, Spain.
- Slide 3: VELÁZQUEZ. The Waterseller of Seville (c. 1625), Oil on canvas, 42 x 31 7/8”, Wellington Museum, London.
- Slide 4: (Left) detail from VELÁZQUEZ’s The Waterseller of Seville (c. 1625); and (right) detail from CARAVAGGIO’s Entombment (c. 1600).
- Slide 5: Detail of water droplet on surface of jug in VELÁZQUEZ’s The Waterseller of Seville
- Slide 6: VELÁZQUEZ. Los Borrachos (1628-29), Oil on canvas, 65 x 88 ½ in., Museo del Prado, Madrid.
- Slide 7: (Left) Bacchus from VELÁZQUEZ’s Los Borrachos (c. 1625); and (right) CARAVAGGIO’s Bacchus (c. 1600).
- Slide 8: Detail of realistic figures in VELAZQUEZ’s Los Borrachos.
- Slide 9: VELÁZQUEZ. The Surrender of Breda (c. 1635), Oil on canvas, 10’ x 12’, Museo del Prado, Madrid.
IMAGE INDEX
- Slide 10: (Left) detail of Christ delivering keys to Saint Peter from PERUGINO’s Early Renaissance Delivery of the Keys (c. 1475); and (right) detail of handing over the keys from VELÁZQUEZ’s The Surrender of Breda (c. 1635).
- Slide 11: (Left) VELÁZQUEZ’s Spanish Baroque The Surrender of Breda (c. 1635); and (right) UCCELLO’s Early Renaissance Battle of San Romano (c. 1450).
- Slide 12: VELAZQUEZ. Las Meninas; or “The Maids of Honor (1656), Oil on canvas, 10’ 5" x 9’ 1”, Museo del Prado, Madrid.
- Slide 13: Detail of self-portrait from VELÁZQUEZ’s Las Meninas.
- Slide 14: Detail of Princess Margarita from VELÁZQUEZ’s Las Meninas.
