CVl /K JCJst, ORKS OF ELASQUEZ BEING A REPRODUCTION OF SEVENTEEN SCARCE AND FINE PRINTS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM SELECTED AND DESCRIBED BY G. W. REID KEEPER OF THE PRINTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY STEPHEN THOMPSON LONDON BELL AND DALDY YORK STREET COVENT GARDEN 1872 PREFACE. HE series of photographs here presented to the public comprises seven¬ teen subjects taken from rare prints contained in the Collection of the British Museum, engraved from some of the choicest paintings of Velasquez. The works of Velasquez are amongst those of foreign artists which, until a comparatively recent period, were the least known in England, his pencil having- been mainly employed in painting for his royal patron, Philip IV.; the majority of them are therefore only to be met with in the Royal galleries of Madrid, and it is there only that his paintings can be properly studied. The fame of Velasquez for a long time rested on his portraits rather than on his historical landscapes or other pictures, but, as his works became better known, it was found that his genius was of the most universal character ; that it extended to almost every branch of his art,—portraits, representations of sacred and profane history, landscapes, interiors, horses, dogs, flowers, fruit, having been painted by him with a like marvellous skill. Though less minute in detail and finish than the painters of many other schools, and somewhat sparing of and peculiar in the use of colour, he nevertheless produced a harmonious effect which is striking, simple, beautiful, and natural. In portraiture Velasquez was equal to the best of any foreign school of painters, and superior to any artist of his own country; and it has been said of him that PREFACE. he elevated portrait-painting to the dignity of history. The subjects of his portraits were generally royal or noble personages or illustrious persons, but in depicting these his honest, manly genius could not stoop to flatter kings, princes, or potentates more than he did those pigmies and distorted human oddities attached to the court of Philip, who were often the subjects of his pencil, and of whom two specimens are given in this Collection. He painted men and women just as they were,—their minds as well as their persons,—irrespective of rank or condition, and on his canvas they “ live and breathe and have their being. Pie was above all tricks of art; nature and truth were his guides. The photographs in this Collection, all but two, are portraits, and they are amongst those of the most highly-esteemed as exhibiting the skill of the great Spanish painter in that branch of art. The other two are selected as the best known and finest of his general compositions. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I EGO RODRIGUEZ DE SILVA Y VELASQUEZ. PHILIP III. King of Spain. PHILIP IV. King of Spain, in his Youth. PHILIP IV. on horseback. ISABEL DE BOURBON, Queen of Spain. DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS, Prince of Asturias. DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS, ON horseback. DON FERDINAND OF AUSTRIA. DON CASPAR GUZMAN, Duke of Olivarez. A SPANISH GENTLEMAN. A SPANISH MAIDEN. MENIPPUS THE PHILOSOPHER. BARBAROSSA THE CORSAIR. LEVISILLO, THE KING’S DWARF. ANOTHER MALE DWARF. THE WATER SELLER OF SEVILLE. LOS BORRACHOS.—The Topers. MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. HE city of Seville, in the language of Spain the Paragon of Cities, the World’s Eighth Wonder, and the most famous which the sun surveys, has the honour of giving birth to Diego Velasquez de Silva, a painter, who, by eminence in his art, rose to every title and emolument which his merit could claim, or fortune could bestow. He was born in the year 1594, of Donna Geronima Velasquez, by Juan Rodriguez de Silva, natives of the same illustrious city, and both descended from ancient and honourable houses. He bore his mother’s name Velasquez, antecedent to that of his family, according to the usage of Andalusia. The family of Silva is of Portuguese original; and, by long and honourable descent, claims to derive from the ancient kings of Alba-Longa. The house of Silva, in point of splendour and antiquity, is unquestionably respectable; but I have little doubt that it may say, with many more that contend for Pagan original, in the language of the Pharisee,—“ Have we not Abraham for our father?” The parents of Velasquez, though in very narrow circumstances, gave their son a liberal education, and tradition has preserved many circumstances of his early docility as well as excellent disposition. But when every paper, on which he wrote his puerile tasks, exhibited sketches and drawings on the back, and those of such a style as plainly indicated a new and extraordinary genius in its dawn, the good sense of his parents did not hesitate upon humouring the impulse, and accordingly put him under the instruction of Francisco de Herrera, commonly called Old Herrera, a rigid master, but of consummate ability in the art he taught. The manners and temper of Old Herrera were, however, so unsupportable to young Velasquez that he left him, and entered himself in the academy of Pacheco, a man of equal erudition and of an admirable nature. Here his genius began to display itself in several sketches from nature of peasants and ordinary people in peculiar habits and occupa¬ tions, as they struck his fancy in the streets or posadas of the city. These first sallies of his imagination give a striking representation of the manners and characters of the vulgar: they exhibit also a luxuriancy of still-life that he has introduced in the scenery of his pieces, in all which the costuma is observed to perfection. One of his first productions is to be seen in the palace of the Buen-Retiro, and represents an old Aguador in a tattered garment, which through its rents, discovers his clean linen underclothing, giving a large glass of water to drink to a boy; a piece of wonderful nature and expression. This painting, now the B 2 MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. properly of the Duke of Wellington, is at Apsley House. A photograph of it forms one of the series now published. In subjects of this kind young Velasquez suffered his imagination to disport itself in its first sallies, replying to some, that moved him to assume a higher style of painting, that the foundation of his art must be strength; delicacy might follow after as the super¬ structure. It should seem in his first productions that he coloured in the style of Caravaggio, but upon his seeing some pictures of Guido, Parmigiano, Cavalori, Ballini, Lanfranco, and Ribera, which were brought to Seville out of Italy, he altered his manner; but the artist upon whose model he chiefly studied to form himself at this time was Luis Tristan of Toledo, a scholar of Dominico Greco. Of Tristan he declared himself an admirer and professed imitator; his design, colouring and vivacity of invention, were the standard to which he directed all his studies. In portraits Dominico Greco was his model; the air of his heads Velasquez held in the highest estimation, and frequently observed, “ that what this master did well was best of all good things, and what he did ill was bad in the extreme. Whilst Velasquez was thus engaged in the practice, he by no means neglected the theory of his art. He read every author of credit that could form his judgment or enlarge his science, and some he diligently studied,—in particular Albrecht Durer for the symmetry of the human figure; Andres Bexalio for anatomy. He read the treatise of Daniello Barbaro on perspective; Vitruvio, Vinola and others on architecture; and at the same time perfected himself in the propositions of Euclid—elements that prepare the mind in every art and every science to which the human faculties can be applied: which give a rule and measure for every thing in life, dignify things familiar, and familiarize things abstruse; invigorate the reason, restrain the licentiousness of fancy, open all the avenues of truth, and give a charm even to controversy and dispute. After five years thus studiously employed in the academy, he married Donna Juana, the daughter of his master Francisco Pacheco, of a family and name as noble as any in Spain. This respectable artist in his “ Treatise de la Pintura” (Lib. i. cap. 9), after an elogium on the merit of his pupil, declares that he was moved to bestow his daughter upon him, from the many demonstrations he gave of a most virtuous and liberal disposition, and the high expectations he had formed of his talents after an experience of five years, which he had spent in superintending his education; and, after pronouncing prophetically of his scholar’s rising fame, he declares, that so far from regarding it with an eye of envy, he considered his own reputation advanced thereby, in the same manner as Leonardo da Vinci’s was by Raffaello, Castelfranco’s by Tiziano, or Plato’s by Aristotle. Velasquez, who by his marriage with Donna Juana had established himself to his content, felt himself tempted to undertake a journey to Madrid, where and at the Escurial so many treasures of art were amassed : in short, having sacrificed to the softer passions, ambition came in turn to take dominion of his mind, and leaving Donna Juana at Seville, he set out with one attendant only for the capital, where he arrived in April of the year 1622, being then in his twenty-eighth year, an age when the mind of man demands expansion and a larger field of action than its native scenes present. Velasquez, upon this visit to Madrid, not finding an opportunity of painting any of the royal persons of the court, returned, after a short stay to Seville, in some degree of disgust; and here perhaps he might have stayed, as Murillo afterwards did, for the remainder of his life, if he had not been earnestly solicited to return by the minister Olivarez, who employed MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. 3 Gongora the court poet to invite him in his name, and to offer the accommodations of his house and family to him. Such an invitation was not to be withstood, and in the year following (viz. 1623) Velasquez for the second time arrived in Madrid. He was now lodged in the house of the prime minister and was soon admitted to take the portrait of the King, the Infants, and Olivarez himself: this was the most immediate crisis of his fame and fortune. Philip had been painted by most of the eminent artists of the time; Vincencio Carducho and his brother Bartolomd, Angelo Nardi, Eugenio Caxes, and Jusepe Leonardo, had successively exerted themselves to the utmost in pourtraying the royal person of a young sovereign in possession of everything which could rouse their emulation and reward their diligence. In the house of the minister Philip sat to Velasquez, and the date of this event is thought important enough to be preserved to posterity; it was on the 30th of August, 1623. The portrait was upon a large scale; the King was drawn in armour and mounted upon a magnificent steed, and displayed with all the advantageous accompaniments of a beautiful scenery in the back-ground. The artist succeeded to his wish ; the court rang with applause, and all the cognoscenti joined in giving the palm to Velasquez above all his predecessors. So complete was his triumph on this happy occasion, that the minister was commanded to inform his inmate that the royal person of Philip would in future be committed to no other pencil but his. In consequence he proceeded to paint the Infants Don Carlos and Don Fernando, and after them he made a portrait of his patron Don Gaspar de Guzman Conde de Olivarez, mounted, like his royal master, on a noble Andalusian courser, richly caparisoned. If I may venture an observation in general upon these and others of his royal portraits, it is, that there seems a labour in the artist, working under the impression of the personal dignity of his sitters, to force a character of the sublime, which sometimes borders on the tumid and bombast,—everything swells and flutters: rich as the Spanish horses are by nature, still there seems a pleonasm in their manes and tails that borders on extravagance; but the reader should be reminded that Rubens was now at Madrid, in habits of intimacy with Velasquez; that he had painted his figure of San Giorgio slaying the Dragon,—the very quintessence of colouring, and the most captivating example of extravagance which the art of painting can perhaps exhibit. On the 17th day of March, in this year, Prince Charles of England had made his entry into Madrid; that prince honoured Velasquez with peculiar attention. He did not sit to him, but Velasquez took a sketch of him as he was accompanying King Philip in the chase. When Velasquez had finished his portrait of the king, he hung it up by royal permission in a public street of the city, opposite the convent of San Felipe: whilst the courtiers applauded it to the skies, and the poets made sonnets in his praise,, the artists, silently passing by, pined with envy at the sight. Fortune now began to open all her treasures to the meritorious and happy Velasquez. On the last day of October, 1623, he was made king’s painter, with a salary of twenty ducats per month, exclusively of which he was paid for his pictures by tale. The royal munificence assigned him a handsome house to live in, of two hundred ducats a year. Philip paid him three hundred ducats for his portrait, and granted a pension of three hundred more a year specifically for this performance. Great rewards being thus heaped upon Velasquez, great things were expected from him; and though the public subscribed to his superiority in portraitures, he had not executed yet any capital historical. piece, as his competitors Caxes, Carduchio and Nardi had done. Each of these had signalised himself 4 MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. on a subject of great popular dclat, “ The Expulsion of the Moors out of Spain, by Philip III.” He again entered the lists with these artists, and, following them in their subjects, exhibited a superb composition, in the centre of which he placed the King armed, and in the act of giving directions to a party of soldiers, who are escorting a group of Moors of different ages and sexes to an embarkation, which awaits them in one extremity of the canvas; on the opposite side he has personified the kingdom of Spain as a majestic matron in Roman armour, with part of a stately edifice, and this inscription at her feet, viz.: “ Philippo III. Hispan. Regi Cathol. Regum pientissimo, Belgico, Germ. Afric. pacis et justitiae cultori publicae quietis assertori ob eliminatos feliciter Mauros Philippus IV. robore ac virtute magnus, in magnis maximus, animo ad majora nato propter antiq. tanti parentis et pietatis observantiseq. ergo trophasum hoc erigit anno 1627.” Below he signs as follows, viz.: “ Didacus Velazquez Hispalensis Philip IV. Regis Hispan. pictor, ipsiusque jussu fecit anno 1627.” No sooner had he completed this composition, than he again experienced the munificence of the sovereign. In the same year he was made Usher of the Chamber, an office of great rank and honour; and, in further support of his new dignity, Philip added a stipend of a daily ration of twelve rials, and a yearly suit or habit of ninety ducats’ value. In this year Rubens made his second visit to Madrid, in quality of Ambassador. The intimacy which he formed with Velasquez, and the ideas he thereby inspired into him of the state of the arts in Italy, raised an irresistible desire in that ambitious artist of prosecuting further improvements in the study of the antique and in the schools and collections in Rome. Velasquez was now in such favour, that he had no sooner expressed his wishes for a tour to Italy, than he found himself anticipated in every preparative for his undertaking that the indulgence of his sovereign could provide. His Majesty gave him four hundred ducats and two years salary to defray his expences, and Olivarez, upon parting, added two hundred ducats more in gold, and a medal with the head of the king, and many fecommendatory letters. He left Madrid in company with Don Alonso Espinola, the king’s general in Flanders, and embarked at Barcelona on the feast of San Lorenzo. In August, 1629, he landed at Venice, and was lodged at the Spanish ambassador’s house, who showed him all possible kindness, and directed his servants to attend him whenever he went out. In Venice he copied a picture of Tintoretto’s; but not choosing to make any long abode there, he took his route to Rome, passing through Ferrara, where he was very honourably entertained by Cardinal Sachetti, who had been nuncio in Spain, with whom he passed two days. In Rome he was lodged in the Vatican; by favour of Cardinal Barberino, who gave him access at all times to the works of Raffaello and Michel Angelo Buonaroti. Of these great authors he studied the most capital productions with unremitting attention and delight, but his health being impaired by intense application, he was directed into a more airy part of the city, in the house of the Florentine ambassador, through the favour of the Conde de Monte Rey, Philip’s ambassador at Rome. Being now convalescent, he gave himself up to the study of the antique for the space of two months. During his abode in Rome, he painted his celebrated history of Jacob, when his sons show the bloody garment of Joseph, a picture which in all the great requisites of perfection is scarcely to be exceeded, and is undoubtedly one of his most capital performances ; he also painted the “ Discovery of Venus’s Infidelity,” as related by Apollo to Vulcan, who is represented at his forge attended by his journeymen the Cyclops, a wonderful piece of MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. 5 expression. Both these pictures he transmitted to King Philip, who ordered them to his palace of the Buen-Retiro, from whence that of Joseph was removed to the Escurial, where it now hangs, an illustrious accession to that invaluable collection. Velasquez, after a year-and-a-half’s absence, returned to Madrid, taking Naples in his way, where he made a portrait of Donna Maria de Austria, Queen of Hungary, consort of Ferdinand III. Absence had not impaired his favour with the king, who made him one of the gentlemen of his wardrobe, and appointed him a painting-room in his palace, of which the king himself kept a private key; resorting to him as Charles did to Tiziano and Philip II. to Coello: “ Fuit enim ea comitas illi, propter quam gratior Alexandra magno erat, frequenter in officinam ventitanti.”— Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 31, cap. 10. In 1638 Velasquez made a portrait of Don Francisco III. Duke de Modena, who was then at Madrid, and in the same year he painted his famous crucifix now in the convent of the monks of San Placido at Madrid; and surely, if there were nothing but this single figure to immortalize the fame of Velasquez, this alone were sufficient. It is of the size of life upon a plain background, disposed with great simplicity and nature, but with an expression in the features, an air in the depression of the head, and a harmonious tone of colouring, at once so tender and of such effect that nothing can exceed it. I visited this exquisite production repeatedly, and every time with new delight and surprise. The wretched cell or cabin where it hangs, affords but little light through the iron grate of a window not glazed, and that little is unfavourable; Mount Calvary itself was scarce more dismal. In the same year Velasquez finished a portrait of Don Adrian Pulido Paresa, Admiral of the King’s Fleet in New Spain. This officer was under orders for repairing to his command, when Philip, upon entering the chamber of Velasquez, then at work upon this portrait, mistaking it for the Admiral himself, entered into sudden expostulation with him for staying at Madrid beyond his time; declaring to Velasquez, after discovering his mistake, that it was so perfect a counterpart of the Admiral, that with no light in the room but what struck immediately upon the figure, he had for some time actually believed it to be the person himself, and was surprised at finding him there in disobedience to his orders. In painting this picture, Velasquez used pencils with very long handles to produce more effect by distance; this admirable portrait was in possession of the late Duke d’Arcos. It may well be expected to find the performances of this period of Velasquez’s life executed in his best style, when his taste was formed by study at Rome, his judgment matured by experience, and his fire not yet abated by years; caressed by his sovereign, applauded by his contemporaries, and at the summit of all worldly prosperity. In 1643 the minister Olivarez was dismissed from his employments and confined to his town of de Toro, where he died on the 22nd of July, 1645, and his body was permitted to be removed for interment by the bare¬ footed Carmelites at Loeches in the convent of his own foundation. The good fortune of Velasquez received no shock by the disgrace of his patron. It is to be mentioned to his honour upon this event, that he did not forsake his benefactor in misfortune, but took occasion, not¬ withstanding his employ at court, to see Don Gaspar de Guzman in his exile, and give him one, and perhaps the only example of an unshaken attachment: the healing consolation which such a visit must bring with it to a mind galled by ingratitude and languishing under the inquietudes of disappointed ambition, need not be pointed out. It is an amiable trait in Philip’s character, that he saw this attachment and suffered it without withdrawing any portion of his favour from c 6 MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. Velasquez; this, I think, is clear, from his giving him this very year the honour of the gold key, and taking him with him upon his second journey to Saragossa. He had accompanied the king into Arragon the year before Olivarez’s disgrace, when Philip made his expedition for quieting the tumults in Cataluna; this was repeated in 1644, and now his favourite artist attended him as groom of the chamber, and upon the submission of Lerida to Philip on the 31st of July of that year, who entered it in person on the 7th of August following, Velasquez made a magnificent portrait of the king in the habit he then wore, with all the insignia of a general—an inestimable work. He drew the Cardinal Infante Don Fernando, Philip’s brother, the Queen Donna Isabel richly habited, mounted on a beautiful white palfrey, and the prince Don Carlos, very young, in armour, with a general’s staff in his hand, on a Spanish jennet in full speed. He made many other portraits of illustrious persons, Don Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, Cardinal de Borja y Velasco, Archbishop of Seville and Toledo, the learned Simon de Roxas and others. He drew the king again on horseback in armour with his titles as follows, viz.: Philippus Magn. hujus nom. IV. potentissimus Hispaniarum Rex Indiar. maxim. Imp. Anno Christ. XXV. Szeculi XVII. Era. XX. A. In the year 1648 Velasquez was dispatched upon a particular embassy to Pope Innocent X. and was at the same time commissioned by the king to purchase statues and pictures in Italy for the royal collection. On this expedition he set out from Madrid in the month of November, and embarked at Malaga with Don Jayme Manuel de Cardenas, Duke de Naxera, who was going to Trent a esperar a la Reyna Donna Maria Ana de Austria, daughter of the Emperor Ferdinando III. and Donna Maria Infanta of Spain. Velasquez landed in Genoa, passed through Milan, Padua, and from thence to Venice, where he passed some time in reviving his ac¬ quaintance with the admired compositions of Tiziano, Tintoretto, Paulo Veronese, and others; and here he had the good fortune to purchase some capital pictures, as likewise in Bologna, where he engaged Michael Angelo, Colonna, and Agostino Mitelli to go into Spain to execute some paint¬ ings in fresco for the king. He made some stay in Florence, and paid a visit to the Duke of Modena, who received him with great cordiality and showed him the portrait he had painted at Madrid, splendidly equipped and disposed to all possible advantage in the best apartment of the palace; from hence he went to Parma to view the works of the celebrated Correggio, and whilst he was on his way from Parma to Rome, he was called away to Naples by express from the Viceroy Conde de Onate, who had received the king’s commands to confer with Velasquez upon the objects of his commission ; here he was visited by the famous Ribera, a Knight of the Order of Christ. When he arrived in Rome he was received with great kindness and distinction by the Pope, and as he found many hours when the duties of his employ did not engage his attention, he painted many portraits in Rome of dignified persons after the example of Rubens during his embassy at Madrid. Innocent X. sat to Velasquez, and in token of his satisfaction, gave him a magnificent golden medal. Velasquez sent a copy of this picture over to Spain. He made a portrait of Juan de Parexa the painter, which being exhibited to the public on the feast of San Joseph, after the departure of Velasquez, it was so universally applauded that the academicians of Rome elected him of their body and sent his appointment after him to Spain. It was not till the year 1651 that Velasquez took his departure by sea from Genoa on his return to Spain, freighted with a very grand collection of antique statues, busts, and some pictures of the most celebrated masters. He arrived in safety with his cargo, and was received by Philip with his accustomed favour. The Queen Donna Isabel de Bourbon had died whilst Velasquez was absent, and the king had wedded Donna Maria Ana de Austria. MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. 7 In 1652 Philip bestowed upon Velasquez a very distinguishing mark of his favour by appointing him Aposentador major of his royal palace in the room of Don Pedro de Torres, an office to be filled by none but men of eminent pretensions either in rank or service, and after his return from Italy it appears that Philip took him into absolute confidence, passing many hours in private with him, and advising with him upon affairs of the greatest delicacy and importance. It was at this time Velasquez designed and executed his famous picture, in which he has represented himself at his easel with his palette in one hand and his pencil in the other; the picture on which he is working is the portrait of Donna Margarita Maria of Austria, Infanta of Spain, and afterwards Empress of Germany. It is related of this picture that Philip with his own hand put in the order of Santiago upon the portrait of Velasquez, which at the time of painting this piece, in 1656, he was not yet possessed of. When Charles II. of Spain shewed this picture to Luca Giordano, he exclaimed with rapture and surprise, “ Senor esta es la Theologia de la Pintura.” In the year 1656 Velasquez received an order from the king to select a number of original pictures to augment the collection at the Escurial. They were taken out of those which he himself had purchased for the king in Italy, with others that had been collected in Naples by the Viceroy Conde de Castrillo, and the pictures which had been bought in England at the sale of Charles the First’s effects. Amongst these latter it is well known was the inestimable Perla of Raffaello, an Holy Family by Andrea del Sarto, and a capital piece by Tintoretto of our Saviour washing His Disciples’ feet. These were amongst the selection made by Velasquez, and are now deposited in the sacristy of the Escurial, there to remain for ever dedicated to San Lorenzo and obscurity, or until some such extraordinary revolution as they have already experienced shall again transplant them into other hands, together with the magazine of wealth and precious things imprisoned with them. The extraction of such in¬ estimable pieces of art out of any country may well be termed a national loss and misfortune, and, viewing it as such, we justly execrate the tasteless demagogues that put them up to public sale; but this once done, we certainly have cause for self-congratulation and surprise, that any of the valuable relics of that collection are left amongst us; how it came to pass that the cartoons of Raffaello were bought in by the Protector when Philip’s ambassador was a bidder, one is at a loss to account; and it must be considered as a very happy chance that they did not expatriate together with the Perla and its companions. Add to this, that at an era when it was religion to break painted windows, it might have been meritorious to burn painted canvas; so that it is well their sentence was not death, instead of banishment. Much, I know, has been said, both in poetry' and prose, upon the near alliance between freedom and the liberal arts; I hope it has been both said and sung with truth and reason. We are interested to wish that such respectable parties should be upon the best of terms; but it must be remembered, in this instance at least, the party who attacked freedom was the collector, and the party who defended it the seller. I might add that the buyer was an absolute Prince. Certainly it is hard with the arts when an arbitrary sovereign upon a scruple of conscience issues his edict for the demolition of all pictures in the nude. Such a manifesto in the teeth of taste can only be exceeded by Caliph Omar’s order for the burning of the Alexandrian library. In such cases we cannot too much lament the misuse of power, where such deplorable effects result from the exercise of it; but where is the tyrant who could issue edicts more completely barbarous than the following, viz: 8 MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. July 23, 1645. Ordered, That all such pictures and statues there (York House) as are without any super¬ stition, shall be forthwith sold for the benefit of Ireland and the North. Ordered, That all such pictures there, as have the representation of the second person in Trinity upon them, shall be forthwith burnt. Ordered, That all such pictures there, as have the representation of the Virgin Mary upon them, shall be forthwith burnt. To all this on one side as well as the other there needs no other answer to be given, than that fanaticism is not freedom, nor the freaks of prudery true modesty of nature. Velasquez, in obedience to his orders, removed forty-one capital pictures to the Escurial, collected by Philip, of all which he presented to the king a full and critical description and account. In 1658 Colonna and Mitelli, the two artists whom Velasquez had engaged at Bologna, arrived at court, and were immediately employed under the superintendence of Velasquez in many considerable fresco paintings of the galleries, ceilings of the palace and theatre, as well as of the fountains and buildings in the gardens; in these works they were assisted by the celebrated Don Juan Carreno and Don Francisco Rici, both artists in the service of the king. Agostino Mitelli died in 1660, much lamented, and was buried at the royal charge with great solemnity in the convent of our Lady de la Merced with the following inscription on his tomb, viz. : “ D. M. S. Agustinus Miteli Bononensis, pictor prseclarus naturae aemulus admirandus ac perspectiva incomparabilis cujus manu prope vivebant imagines, ipsa invidS., occubuit Mantua Carpetanae, postridie Kalendas Augusti anno MDCLX. HSESTTL. Colonna, after concluding his commission much to the satisfaction of the king and his own emolument, returned to Italy in September, 1662, though others have supposed that he went to France. In 1659 Velasquez, by order of the king, painted a portrait of Don Felipe, Prince of Asturias, born 1651, which was sent into Germany to the Emperor. He also painted one of the Infanta Donna Margarita de Austria, an excellent piece, which portraits were the last works that this illustrious artist lived to finish. In the year preceding this Philip had conferred upon Velasquez the military order of Santiago; the king was then at the Escurial, and having, according to the rules of the order, issued his mandate to the Marquis de Tabara, the president, to examine and report the proofs of qualification on the part of Velasquez, which being complied with and presented to the king, Philip turning himself to Velasquez with a smile that expressed everything most gracious and complacent, replied, “ Give him the order, for I know his noble birth and the right he has to it;” and thus at once made needless any further scrutiny and examination. As a further grace to this distinguished artist, Philip appointed his investiture for the feast of San Prospero, which was the day of the Prince of Asturias, who bore that amongst his names; and thus upon the grand gala of the court, amidst the utmost festivity and magnificence, Velasquez was invested with the insignia of the order by the hands of Senor Don Gaspar Juan Alonso Perez de Guzman, then Conde de Niebla, and afterwards Duke de Medina Sidonia; his sponsor on the solemnity being the Marquis de Malpica, Comendador of the order. The functions of his office of Aposentador now occupied the chief part of Velasquez’s time, who, full of fame and years, began to obey the summons of old age and abate of his wonted application to his art. The king now prepared for his journey to Irun to meet the King of France, who by his MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. 9 ambassador extraordinary had demanded the Infanta Donna Maria Teresa in marriage. This journey took place in 1660, and Velasquez in execution of his office set out before the court; the king followed with the Infanta. They passed through Alcala, Guadalaxara, and Burgos, in which capital Velasquez waited to receive the further orders of his sovereign for fitting and preparing the ceremonials of the interview. The house appointed for this purpose was in the Isle de los Faysanes upon the river Vidasas, near to Irun, in the province of Guepuzcoa. Velasquez advanced to this place in company with the Baron dc Batebilla, Governor of San Sebastian, for the purpose of putting it in proper order and condition for the reception of the royal personages who were there to meet. This interview took place in the month of June, when Louis XIV. after being splendidly regaled and having interchanged several magnificent presents with the Catholic King, received his bride, and Philip returned to San Sebastian. In all these splendid ceremonials Velasquez officiated in quality of his post, adorned with the insignia of his knighthood and other dignities, magnificently apparelled in a vest of golilla with rich silver lace of Milan, according to the fashion of the times; on his cloak the red cross, profusely adorned with diamonds and other precious stones, a beautiful silver-hilted sword of exquisite workmanship with figures in relievo, made in Italy; a costly gold chain round his collar, with the order of Santiago appending to it in a magnificent setting of diamonds. The king returned through Guadarrama and the Escurial to Madrid, and Velasquez, at the summit of all worldly happiness and prosperity, hastened to enjoy the congratulations and embraces of his family. What must have been his disappointment in the moment when he was met with melancholy and dejected countenances by all his household, on account of his death being predicted to them by several of the court. Velasquez was too considerable a man to fall without some traditional presages of his death; this is a tribute which the superstition of the time generally demands, and if chance does not furnish the fact, invention must supply it and biographers must record it. On the eve of San Ignacio, at the end of the month of July in 1660, Velasquez, having attended his functions at court, complained of being unusually fatigued, and sickened that night. His family physician, Don Vicencio Moles, was immediately called in; the alarm of his illness soon reached the king; the royal physicians, Don Miguel de Alva and Don Pedro de Chavarri, were sent to assist, and the fever, as well may be believed, kept pace with their assistance. The king, after so many splendid favours bestowed upon Velasquez through the course of his reign, added the last melancholy office of friendship by sending to him a spiritual comforter in the person of Don Alonzo Perez de Guzman, a good and pious prelate, Archbishop of Tyre in pcirtibus mfideliuin , and Patriarch of the Indies. He supported himself against the violence of his distemper and the medicines of his doctors till the evening of the 6th of August, when this great artist, at the age of sixty-six, having completed a life of uninterrupted felicity and fame, resigned it with becoming fortitude and composure; lamented by his sovereign, and regretted by all but those who envied his talents and prosperity. Philip, who naturally was a lover of the arts, under the tuition of Velasquez had become a judge; the hours which he had dedicated to the society of this elegant and grateful instructor were the most serene and pleasing passages of his life. His attachment to Velasquez had been caused by admiration of his talents, but it was closed and confirmed by experience of his discretion, fidelity, and virtue. This attachment had been now coeval with his reign; it had felt no interruption or abatement, had outlasted all those political ones to which for a time he had so absolutely surrendered himself. In the revulsion of his affection from D IO MEMOIR OF VELASQUEZ. his favourite Olivares, a shock which might naturally be thought decisive against Velasquez, Philip had the moderation to admit of sharing his attentions with a minister whom he had discarded; a self-submission difficult for any man, but doubly so for one possessed of arbitrary power; the grateful vassal felt his sovereign’s magnanimity and knew the value of the sacrifice. From that period his devotion was unbounded, and Philip’s confidence kept pace with it so effectually, in spite of all the peevish efforts of the envious, that he possessed his favour undiminished to the last hour of life. That event deprived the king of a resource and made a gap in his enjoyments which he could never more fill up. The loss to Philip was irreparable, and nothing now remained but to pay the last honours to the memory of Velasquez with a solemnity that should at once mark the love he bore his person and the esteem he entertained for his merits. This was effectually performed and Velasquez was attended to his grave in the parochial church of San Juan by a train of courtiers and grandees, with the band of the royal chapels, and all the funeral ceremonies of the most splendid church on earth. Don Juan de Alfaro of Cordova, a disciple of Velasquez, in partnership with his brother Henry a physician, composed the following epitaph, which, if the reader shall think deficient in elegance, will recompense him in quantity. “ Posteritati Sacratum. D. Didacus Velazquius de Silva Hispalensis, Pictor eximius, natus anno MDLXXXXIV. picturas nobilissimas arti sese dicavit (preceptore accuratissimo Francisco Pocieco qui de pictura pereleganter scripsit) jacet hie: Proh dolor! D. D. Philippi IV. Hispaniarum regis augustissimi a cubiculo pictor primus, a camara excelsa adjutor vigilantissimus, in Regio palatio et extra ad hospitium cubicularius maximus, a quo studiorum ergo missus, ut Romas et aliarum Italias urbium picturas tabulas admirandas, vel quid aliud hujus suppe- lectilis, veluti statuas marmoreas, asreas conquireret, persectaret ac secum adduceret, nummis largiter sibi tradditis: sic cum ipse pro tunc etiam Innocentii X. Pont. Max. faciem coloribus mird exprasssarit, aured catena pretii supra ordinarii cum remuneratus est, numismate, gemmis, caslato cum ipsius Pontificis effigie insculpta ex ipsa ex annulo appenso; tandem D. Jacobi stemmate fuit condecoratus, et post redditum ex fonte rapido Gallias confini Urbe Matritum versus cum Rege suo potentissimo e nuptiis Serenissimae D. Marias Theresias Bibianas de Austria et Borbon, 6 connubio scilicet cum Rege Galliarum Christianissimo D. D. Ludovico XIV. labore itineris febri prashensus, obiit Mantua Carpentanas, postridie nonas Augusti, astatis LXVI. anno M.DC.LX. sepultusque est honorific^ in D. Joannis Parrochiali ecclesia nocte, septimo Idus mensis, sumptu maximo immodicisque expensis, sed non immodicis tanto viro; Hasroum concomitatu, in hoc domini Gasparis Fuensalida Grafierii Regii amicissimi subterraneo sarcophago; suoque magistro prasclaroque viro sasculis omnibus venerando, Pictura collacrimante, hoc breve epicedium Joannes de Alfaro Cordubensis mcestus posuit et Henricus frater medicus.” Richard Cumberland. DIEGO RODRIGUEZ DE SILVA Y VELASQUEZ. ITH a like fidelity to that which Velasquez displayed in the portraits of so many others he has no doubt placed on the canvas his own features and form. This portrait shows us the beau-ideal of an artist and man of genius; it is just such a man as one could conceive to have produced the noble works executed by this matchless Spanish painter. His regular and classical features, lofty and ample brow, intellectual and earnest look, recall to the mind a portrait of Shakspeare. He is dressed in a close-fitting doublet, reaching very high in the neck, and he holds in his hands the implements of his profession— a brush and palette. On his breast, suspended by a simple cord round his neck, he wears the cross of the order of Santiago, bestowed upon him by Philip. PHILIP III. jjHE solemn stolid King, dressed in cuirass, trunk hose, ruff, and small black hat with white feather, a baton in his hand, mounted on a dun-coloured prancing steed having an unusually long flowing mane and tail, is riding along the sea¬ shore. He sits his horse with a dignity truly royal, and with a graceful ease betokening him to be accomplished in the manage. The picture is life-size. From the picture in the Royal Museum, Madrid. ■ ■I PHILIP IV. IN HIS YOUTH. E is dressed in a sporting costume, long leather gloves on his hands, and stands beneath the branches of a tree, holding a fowling-piece in his right hand; a deer-hound beside him. A barren and rocky country is represented in the landscape background, which does not promise much cover for game. The picture is in the Royal Museum, Madrid. . ,, PHILIP IV. HIS composition has been attributed to Rubens, but it is now generally supposed to be the picture that was painted by Velasquez as a model for Tacca’s colossal bronze statue of Philip IV., which he caused to be erected, at great cost, at Madrid. This statue was erected in 1640, and it was long considered to be the finest equestrian statue that modern art had produced. The King, clothed in armour, a baton in his left hand, and a sword on his right side, is seated with easy but stately dignity on a prancing charger, which seems to know its rider. Above his head angels and other celestial beings are hovering in the air, one presenting him with a crown of laurel, another bearing lightning, and two of their companions supporting a globe, symbolical of his power and grandeur. From a picture in the Gallery of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. ^^j&^^rz^^wwwwwfiK^g. ■ -■ :‘?’* ffijwwW : .i£gnwsi% psy ISABEL DE BOURBON. FIRST QUEEN OF PHILIP IV. ELASQUEZ painted several portraits of this royal lady, and this is the last of them. The queen, magnificently dressed in a black velvet robe richly embroidered with pearls, is seated on a cream coloured palfrey having a long flowing mane, and he is pacing with a calm dignity as if conscious of the high station of the noble lady he is bearing- This picture was executed as a companion to the equestrian picture of the king painted seventeen years previously. From a picture in the Royal Gallery, Madrid. DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS. HE Infant Don Balthazar Carlos, Prince of Asturias, son of Philip IV. and of Isabel of Bourbon, at the age of six years. This charming picture gives us the portrait of the infant son of the King, a pleasant intelligent-looking boy, habited as if for the chase. He wears a shooting dress, leather gloves, and holds in his hand a small gun. Two dogs, one a large bloodhound lying on the ground, and the other a greyhound, are on either side of him. The picture is in the Royal Museum, Madrid. DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS. BALTHAZAR CARLOS, Prince of Asturias, was the son of Philip IV. d Isabel of Bourbon. This subject forcibly reminds one of Edwin Land¬ er. The juvenile prince, richly dressed in satin doublet and hose, and wearing long riding boots, a baton in his right hand, mounted on a wild-looking little pony, is galloping over the country in a most courageous self-possessed manner. From a picture in the Royal Museum, Madrid. - DON FERDINAND OF AUSTRIA. j) HE Cardinal Infant Don Ferdinand of Austria, Archbishop of Toledo, Viceroy of Flanders, is represented in the usual sporting dress of the period, holding in his gloved hands a fowling-piece; a deer-hound sitting in front of him, the latter executed with the skill and fidelity to nature of a Snyders. The landscape in the back¬ ground is wild and mountainous, and a stunted tree forms a favourable background to the dog. The picture is in the Royal Museum, Madrid. mm DON GASPAR GUZMAN. DUKE OF OLIVAREZ. HE minister, dressed in a cuirass and crimson scarf, looks back over his left shoulder, as he turns his horse’s head towards a battle raging in the far distance, in the conduct of which, by a poetical license, he is supposed to be concerned. His countenance, shaded by a broad hat, is noble and commanding; he has a profusion of brown locks, and his long thick moustachios curl with still greater fierceness than those of his lord and master. The horse is a prancing bay stallion, of the Andalusian breed, which, says Palomino, with a pleasant pomp of diction, “ drinks from the Betis, not only the swiftness of its waters, but also the majesty of its flow.” Both in face and figure, this portrait confirms the literary sketch by Voiture, who describes the Count-Duke as one of the handsomest gallants in Spain, and belies the hideous caricature of Le Sage. The rider here seems awkwardly forward . in his seat, and the horse is not as correctly drawn as is usual in Velasquez’s equestrian subjects. From a picture in the Royal Museum, Madrid MENIPPUS. ENIPPUS, a cynic philosopher of Phoenicia, was originally a slave, and obtained his liberty with a sum of money, and became one of the greatest usurers at Thebes. He grew so desperate, from the continual reproaches and insults to which he was daily exposed on account of his meanness, that he destroyed himself. He wrote thirteen books of satires, which have been lost. This short memoir of Menippus is placed here with the idea that being seen side by side with the picture it may better elucidate the painter’s intentions, but the portrait is evidently that of some well-known character about the streets of Madrid in Velasquez’s own time. His countenance expresses an amazing amount of cunning and meanness, though he has an eye to personal comforts, as indicated by his warm clothing, ample cloak wrapt round his broad shoulders, and his good shoes and hose. The books and papers at his feet were no doubt an after-thought, and were probably introduced after the naming of the subject. :: v-. LEVISILLO THE KING’S DWARF. N this portrait is evidently represented the King’s favourite among the Court pigmies. He was not one of the “distorted human oddities” described as being attached to the suite of Philip IV. Little as he is, he looks the gentleman, and he appears to have been a person of literary tastes. He is seated in the open air on a stone bench, holding on his knees a ponderous tome of which he is turning over the leaves, and having a pen, ink and note-book on the ground by his side. The Countess d' Aulnoy, in her “ Travels into Spain,” gives the following account of this interesting little gentleman. “The king’s dwarf is one of the prettiest that I ever saw, his name is Levisillo. He was born in Flanders; he is extremely little, and exactly well proportioned; he has a handsome face, an admirable complexion, and is not only wittier than one can imagine, but withal very wise and learned. When he goes to take the air, there is a groom to wait on him, who rides upon one horse and carries another before him, which is so very small that it may properly be termed a dwarf horse, and is as handsome for its kind as its master is for his; this horse is brought to the place where Levisillo is to mount him, for he would be almost tired were he to walk so far; and it is really a great pleasure to see the dexterity of this little animal and his master when he orders him like a managed horse. I do assure you, that when he is on his back they do not both make above three-quarters of an ell in height.” MALE DWARF. EW artists would venture to paint a portrait of a person in the attitude of the odd-looking individual here represented, but Velasquez, who painted his subjects just as he saw them, has no doubt in this case, besides giving the exact lineaments of the stunted personage, also shown him as he was frequently to be seen. He is a solemn, though not unintelligent looking individual of dwarfish stature, and un¬ naturally contracted arms and legs ; the latter presenting a ludicrously foreshortened appearance. He is dressed well in a doublet with a lace collar, and over it a kind of mantle. He is a man of a very different stamp from Levisillo, but there is no lack of assumption to compensate for any deficiency in personal beauty or education. Velasquez painted many dwarfs, both male and female, who were attached to the Court of Philip IV. It was the fashion of the time to keep these stunted and grotesque specimens of humanity to afford sport or amusement to their royal keepers, and the ugliest and most ungainly were often the most esteemed, and their so frequently figuring on the canvas of Velasquez shows them to have been particular favourites of Philip and his court. EL AQUADOC DE SEVILLA. THE WATER SELLER OF SEVILLE. H E subject of this painting is peculiarly Spanish and characteristic. We see w the sun-burnt, close-cropped, weary-looking Water Seller, clad in a tattered jerkin, with two large earthen jars, about to hand a large glass of the limpid fluid to a lad, while another older boy is drinking from a mug. There is a calm dignity of bearing in the principal figure entirely Spanish. Sir William Stirling Maxwell, speaking of this painting, says, “ The execution of the heads, and all the details, is perfect; and the ragged trader, dispensing a few maravedis worth of his simple stock, maintains, during the transaction, a grave dignity of deportment highly Spanish and characteristic, and worthy of an Emperor pledging a great vassal in tokay.” This work was engraved by Bias Amether under the direction of Carmona. King Joseph of Spain attempted to carry off this picture in his flight from the Palace of Madrid, but it was captured in his carriage after the battle of Vittoria. It was afterwards presented by Ferdinand VII. to the Duke of Wellington, and it is now in the Collection at Apsley House. LOS BORRACHOS. THE TOPERS. HIS composition shows that Velasquez, though accustomed to paint kings, princes, and nobles, could no less skilfully portray persons of a humble station. No painting of the Spanish school can surpass this in character, humour, and excellence of colouring. The composition consists of nine life-size figures. The principal one, a half-nude, vulgar-looking rustic, his head encircled with a wreath of vine- leaves, seated on a barrel, representing Bacchus, is placing on the head of a companion, kneeling before him, a similar crown of leaves. He is surrounded by a group of half-inebriated companions, who are drinking, laughing, or looking on with mock gravity at the ceremony. One figure, also stripped and wearing a leafy coronet, is reclining behind the mimic god of wine, holding up a brimming goblet ; another, also wreathed, is seated on the ground with his arms round a large jar of wine. The original sketch for this picture, but containing only six figures, is in the collection of Lord Heytesbury, and it bears the signature “ Diego Velasquez, 1624.” From a picture in the Royal Museum, Madrid. __ Otso ?C_*—^fcv*| <^ — Upa^St/dL Fcx^utu^ - C^LaaJ^L^ SfcviE* ^— tu. GbJiUbi - ShuvLv^ IHaxiuJL . CLu^Jt£x3 GUjfclofe _ Sfl*.{*-^ M_aj(Utils. . CUr ^ rxct^a< O ^ •-,_ i- s' hi . q J ~2 : }A. (jbC^JL. J)