Diego Velázquez

:This article pertains to the artist. For the conquistador who invaded Cuba in 1511, see Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar.

Velázquez in modernity

Until the nineteenth century, little was known outside of Spain of Velázquez's work. His paintings mostly escaped being stolen by the French marshals during the Peninsular War. In 1828 Sir David Wilkie wrote from Madrid that he felt himself in the presence of a new power in art as he looked at the works of Velázquez, and at the same time found a wonderful affinity between this artist and the English school of portrait painters, especially Henry Raeburn. He was struck by the modern impression pervading Velázquez's work in both landscape and portraiture.

Related Topics:
French - Peninsular War - David Wilkie - Henry Raeburn

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Presently, his technique and individuality have earned Velázquez a prominent position in the annals of European art, and he is often considered a father of the Spanish school of art. Although acquainted with all the Italian schools and a friend of the foremost painters of his day, he was strong enough to withstand external influences and work out for himself the development of his own nature and his own principles of art.

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Velázquez is often cited as a key influence on the art of Édouard Manet, important when considering that Manet is often cited as the bridge between realism and impressionism. Calling Velázquez the "painter of painters," Manet admired Velázquez's use of vivid brushwork in the midst of the baroque academic style of his contemporaries and built upon Velázquez's motifs in his own art.

Related Topics:
Édouard Manet - Impressionism

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Modern recreations of Velázquez's classics

The importance of Velázquez's art even today is evident in considering the respect with which twentieth century painters regard his work. Pablo Picasso presented the most durable homage to Velázquez in 1957 when he recreated Las Meninas in his characteristically cubist form. While Picasso was worried that if he copied Velázquez's painting, it would be seen only as a copy and not as any sort of unique representation, he proceeded to do so, and the enormous work—the largest he had produced since Guernica in 1937—earned a position of relevance in the Spanish canon of art. Picasso retained the general form and positioning of the original in the framework of his avant-garde cubist style.

Related Topics:
Twentieth century - Pablo Picasso - Cubist - Guernica - Avant-garde

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Salvador Dalí, as with Picasso in anticipation of the tercentennial of Velázquez's death, created in 1958 a work entitled Velázquez Painting the Infanta Margarita. The color scheme shows Dalí's serious tribute to Velázquez; the work also functioned, as in Picasso case, as a vehicle for the presentention of newer theories in art and thought—nuclear mysticism, in Dalí's case.

Related Topics:
Salvador Dalí - Nuclear mysticism

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Ricardo Pecharromán celebrated the quadricentennial of Velázquez's birth in 1999 by recreating a number of Velázquez's works in a postmodern style.

Related Topics:
Ricardo Pecharromán - Postmodern

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