Conference "Velázquez, troppo vero. The painter and his techniques", given by Jaime García-Máiquez (technician of the Technical Documentation Cabinet of the Prado Museum), on February 23, 2021. It is part of the Francisco Calvo Serraller "Velázquez" series of lectures, organized by the Fundación de Amigos del Museo del Prado.
Transcript (Rough Translation from Spanish to English)
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[Applause] Good afternoon, thank you very much for the
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invitation first of all to Javier portús to the foundation of friends of the Prado Museum, I like to say
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affectionately to the friends of the friends of the Prado Museum, word from a friend of
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friends of friends of the Prado Museum And thank you very much for your assistance, so important and so necessary.
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For so many things, not only brave but of epic or medical dimensions, it is
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here Le sulysses and now you a year ago María Antonia ledó Álvarez
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curator an exhibition tribute to the Prado with paintings made by some of the room's guards Antonia was also
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room guard who, although he has already retired, is here this afternoon in some way
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very present here is more present here
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The exhibition was very impressive with works as delicate and intense as
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these, I was in charge of putting a caption to each work and what started out being
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a verse ended up being an independent poem for each artist the tribute exhibition to the Prado
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It was dedicated to the same thing as this cycle to Professor Calvo Serraller, a vignette with his caricature as a comic.
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opened the exhibition and since it was not exactly a work of art in that case, it occurred to me to dedicate a poem to Paco
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bald man to make him like a poetic portrait Beyond the fact that it is a poem by
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circumstance and I like it specifically for two things, first
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place because it pays homage, that is to say plagiarizes, the beginning of
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a very famous poem by Juan Ramón Jiménez that I know says what my God was like
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What was it like And secondly because the painter quotes Carducho according to Jonathan
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Most underrated Brown of the 17th century to which Paco Calvo dedicated a lot of effort
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intellectual in addition to books that are currently essential for
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understand this painter and partly the artistic theory of the 17th century I am going to
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read the poem as a tribute to Carlos Herrera how my God spoke how he spoke about
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Paleolithic rock art of some mailboxes of an equestrian portrait of the hatred of Cain or what Plato loved art
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It didn't matter that I heard his dark and slow sophist's voice ramble with
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unusual talent about Picasso de carducho they said he died I don't believe it this
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tomorrow What's more, I thought I saw him in the corridors of the museum smiling and
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serene and abstracted, there is something in him that is very much ours, his eternal condition of
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teacher and speaking of teachers I would like to dedicate this conference to Carmen Garrido she was my mentor my boss my
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co-worker, my friend has recently died, the people we love
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matter die too young and too recently she wrote the definitive book on the technique of
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Velázquez Well, she wouldn't like me to talk about her book in those terms, let's say that
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a definitive book on Velázquez's technique and that is why it is fitting that this talk where I will mention his name
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several times it is inevitably dedicated to her
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in some conversations between Borges and Sábato that ended up in a book
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which was called Sabato dialogues said that the title was the essential metaphor of the
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book whenever I choose a title for a talk or an article I want it to be
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significant and at the same time with certain literary aspects cradle like a shell so that in 50 years they will continue
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reading or listening to these talks with a certain interest but also with a certain literary sympathy the titles
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that I have put in some articles dedicated to Velázquez are the squaring of the tracing circle and originality in the
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first Velázquez to let's talk about that this afternoon more paintings than walls
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collecting a quote from Joan Muret, one of the few references to the hall of kingdoms in the 17th century from 1667 that said I don't know
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how the room is decorated in other seasons but when we were there there were more paintings than
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walls that just what happens in the hall of kingdoms the paintings were not only on the walls but also
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In some points about the doors we will also comment on that topic, unraveling The spinners for a theme of
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root iconographic interpretation of the technical documentation and to address the
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issue of the authorities of Velázquez or not Velázquez a complex issue that in some way also tells us
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rubs against those of us who work in the technique I made directly like a poem Adrián Pulido couple a Velázquez from feet to
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the tropobero head too true or a translation perhaps less literal but more
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Exactly, it cannot be true was the comment the Pope said when he saw his
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own tenth innocence when seeing his own portrait but the essence of the title in
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this case is more the subtitle the painter and his techniques the key is in the
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plural, I have not been invited to talk about technique but the point is that I not only want to talk about technique, we are going to
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talk about the supports that the painter used the types of priming of the underlying drawing the changes of
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composition but I want to involve all that information in the technical artistic and almost social interests of
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Instead of techniques, Velázquez could have titled the painter and his tricks, but the word trick has a meaning.
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Magical component and what is worse, comical that is quite far from that artisanal and human vision of Velázquez
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What I want to convey to you today Velázquez must have had
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a training structured in a way that simulates many other painters since
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It was the guild custom. In the ordinances, some ordinances are preserved, for example from 1632 in Seville and in the
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contracts stipulated a professional relationship and about six years, which could be the first trial year where the
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apprentice would live in the master's house, he would feed him, dress him, teach him and I quote verbatim the saying
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I have fully completed your art according to what you know without hiding anything
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There is still some reminiscence of the guild workshops of the Middle Ages or the first Renaissance where
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There was a myth that teachers hid information from students, serving the student in everything the student
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teacher will order him to be honest and possible to do Francisco Pacheco was a painter
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Mannerist of great interest and always criticized talent. It hurts me because I like the dry and
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almost Pacheco's surliness that combined Italian flamenco influences in an eclectic way occupied a place
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prominent in the Sevillian art of his time for his extensive culture and his relationships with the Nobility and the clergy that
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In short, it was the clients who were the ones who had money. He was also a first-rate theorist, a hard worker.
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craftsman and a wise technician of pictorial procedures with an innate didactic vocation, all this accumulation of
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circumstances shaped him as an ideal teacher, it is not surprising that Juan Rodríguez de Silva, the father of Velázquez
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definitively chose him as the teacher of his first-born son, who would probably have shown from a very early age
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soon some extraordinary skills for drawing and I say definitely because it seems proven that the first decision
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of Velázquez's parents was to put and his son in Herrera's The old man of the veracity of this event tells us
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Francisco Pacheco himself realizes that he disfigures a man in his art of painting.
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uneducated Herrera did not examine himself as a painter, the honor of being his son-in-law's teacher has been
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It is fair to hinder the audacity of someone who wants to attribute this Glory to himself, paradoxically by denying it.
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even if the year of trial that the ordinances spoke of was a specific event
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That year perhaps it was that year that he was with Herrera also talking about the
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pictorial taste of Velázquez's parents and his ability to react to the problems of fame in
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Seville in the 1930s, which is when The Art was written, which was finally published in the year
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posthumously in the year 49 but but the majority of the treaty was written
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beginning of the 1930s, Pacheco's relations with Herrera, the importance of the trade unions
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Spain to say here the importance of a simple comment, not the wealth
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Herrera's relationship would be ratified and expanded by Antonio Palomino in his pictorial museum. Although they changed their
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decision we must praise the pictorial taste of the parents when choosing Herrera The Old Man as a painter as a teacher
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was more attractive and modern than Pacheco and to point out his delicious lack of business strategy by not having
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Chosen Pacheco from the first moment because he was the best placed in terms of both taste and strategy
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Velázquez would learn with enviable efficiency. It is true that when looking at comparing
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paintings by Pacheco and Velázquez from their first stage, one cannot help but accept an abysmal difference between
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them but in reality they are differences related to talent with the brushstroke with artistic ambitions
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more than with the technique or artistic procedures as we will now see all the slides that say The
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talk at the conference are going to be life-size scale for me that
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I work in Adobe Photoshop, it is usual for me to use all the paintings I have.
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The ones I work with are at actual size ignoring pixels per inch. What if?
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I want to compare sizes on a real scale, the only thing I do is match the pixels per inch and I have the sizes left.
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For example, this is the same as the size of material objects such as paintings.
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also intended to occupy a specific place in a specific place such as a room, a living room, a dressing room.
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It is even an element that particularly concerns its meaning. We are accustomed in books to compare
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images let's say a little arbitrarily without taking into account this at all
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aspect you don't have to be a radical either but you do have to be at least sensitive
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The first material choice that a painter had to make was to choose the type of support on which he wanted to work.
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one hundred of the 130 paintings commonly attributed with swings
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evidently the attributions given by some and not others to Velázquez are all
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on Canvas It is true that there is a miniature, there is also a copper in discussion But all the accepted
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all over the world are the Lienzo, the type of Lienzo used was determined by
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two factors that are the size of the work and also the quality of the work
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in Seville for sizes smaller than a meter 15, the smaller side was used.
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short of that of the loom because the loom could give a maximum of about 15 but of
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long could be very long on the side on the shorter side of the painting
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used the classic taffeta fabric, which is this one here, which is typical of
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vertical threads crisscrossed with horizontal threads is the most common type of canvas.
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common throughout the history of painting but for those who were between 115 and 2 meters
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many painters who could also economically because they were
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well-placed tablecloths used the type of canvas that
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It had a fairly marked drawing that gave a greater width
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when it happened that when the width of the painting was greater than 2 meters it
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Normally, since they had to make a seam on the Canvas, they used the cheapest Canvas and they couldn't avoid
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the seams although we have found in Murillo's details or in himself the
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tinder exhibition by Greg the paintings by El Greco by illescas that are currently in the Prado Museum are
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tablecloth fabrics with seams but it is strange that Velázquez only used fabrics from
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mantelillo in his Sevillian stage since in Madrid they were perhaps linked to the court environment
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exceptionally taffeta is that they measured two and a half meters wide that
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They are the ones that can be seen, for example, in the spinners or in
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the spears which in turn inevitably have a seam at the top but
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that pronounced width of the entire main scene is made with a single
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cloth since the paintings are almost all lined
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In the Prado Museum and in all museums it is necessary to study the supports to
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through radiography, that is, on the original canvas on which the paintings were painted in the century of
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even 18 but normally in 19 and especially the beginning of 20 another fabric was glued to give it support and firmness
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to the original canvas and that is called renting a painting in the Prado
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They exist exceptionally and because they are paintings that come from the royal collection seven
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unlined Velázquez paintings This is one of them is the drunks but
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There is also Baltasar Carlos on horseback Baltasar Carlos and the and the and
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the Infante the cardinal Infante hunter The mercury
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and Argos the coronation of the Virgin one of the Medici villas also unlined
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Cleopatra's pavilion, radiography is a tool, as I have said, that is fundamental for the study of
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the supports because you can see the additions here you are clearly seeing the addition of the fabric now
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We are going to see other examples of it and in turn clear the seams of the fabric also the tension garlands that
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are very important which are this deformation of the fabric produced when
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the original fabric was nailed onto the first stretcher produced a tension
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fabric that is already marked forever if it is unlocked to an original painting and
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It is re-woven again on a larger Canvas, the tension garlands will always remain on the fabric.
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What are these here and here I have brought you some stolen photos of a painting that is currently in the
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x-ray bunker where we can see the original fabric even here it appears as a hole of what could be a
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original nail painting here a lining fabric and here these
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exceptional But well, sometimes a second lining fabric happens, this painting has three fabrics
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or this detail of the spinners where we can see the original fabric where
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we can see the addition we can see the gaps even in the seam between the original fabric and that of the addition
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and then we can also see the tension garlands and we can even see the trace that the
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original frame when the painting was printed, which is this one, with which we can
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know in some way indirectly through the x-ray what type of frame they had in many of the
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paintings by the painters we are studying and the widths of the stretchers by
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example And if at some point, as happens with the spinners, the fabric is cut
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original we can calculate with these marks the surface of original fabric that would be missing
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This is a painting, as I have told you, that is added and original and rather I want to explain this one here, you can't see any
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deformation of the fabric this can happen due to two things because the frame
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A painting of a certain size has been cut around its entire perimeter and the
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and the marks of the deformed ones have disappeared as one goes towards the
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center the painting disappear so we may be seeing the fragment of a
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much larger paint we can calculate the intensity How it is losing
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intensity the deformations of the threads Or the second hypothesis is that they are
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scraps of paint were primed surfaces of larger paintings and Pieces of this paint were finished to
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minor paintings, which is what has possibly happened in Velázquez's Francisco Pacheco, which does not have the slightest
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tension garland on the fabric support that I have given you
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briefly explained, the preparation was applied, that is, the priming and priming of the Canvas was not painted on
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The blank raw canvas was a necessary task that in each region had some
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unique characteristics and that showed in different schools Even in different artists an interesting and
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particular evolution of the artistic procedures of Seville in the second and third centuries.
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decade of the 17th century we have a first-rate document that is the treatise on the art of painting by
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Francisco Pacheco Well, it is a book, it has 800 pages and well, it can be read.
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one afternoon this what you are seeing is a test tube that they used that they manufactured
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in the colleagues, my colleagues from the analysis laboratory with the recipes
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or the indications given by Francisco Pacheco or Antonio Palomino in their treatise
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not only from the mixture of linseed linseed oils but also from the
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Original pigments that were used then and in the quantities that they say they should be used and this is a bit
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I am going to detail the result of the preparations now.
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preparations These are the preparations according to the color types according to Pacheco's instructions
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and of and of Palomino And this is a statigraphic sample of a painting
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where we somehow also see the color of the primer itself.
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the work, Pacheco advised gluing the fabric to make the support permeable with a thin
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layer of animal glue and possibly apply a clay-based primer. The writer refers to
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These are like that clay that is used in Seville, ground into powder and tempered on the slab with linseed oil. This is what
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those of us who work in techniques such as clay from Seville, that is, lands, know
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with carbon black iron oxides mixed with calcium carbonate to which the
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white lead the mixture gave the Sevillian primers that characteristic brownish brown or
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reddish that you are seeing is not perhaps not if we look in
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detail photos unpainted part primed but parts
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unpainted of some paintings we can see in Velázquez's Adoration of the Magi, for example, this tone of which
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We are talking or look at the same adoration of the magi This is the face of the Child Jesus on the edge the limit
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between the child and the Virgin's sleeve appears
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also the brown one or this painting by Murillo which is Saint Peter in tears
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which was purchased by the Focus Foundation of Seville where they also appear in many borders
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or in many paint intersections the primer we are talking about appears directly, not
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It is the one that Velázquez Pacheco Herrera used, well old Murillo
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We receive a painting, a possible painting by Murillo, and we see that it has no
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I say a preparation of Murillo because the evolution of Velázquez now we are going to see that it is going to be more complex but I
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It comes to us to study a possible painting by Murillo and it does not have this land that I am going to use in
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technical terms, as we say, Seville mud primer and many alarms go off, especially if it is
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a painting on Canvas that in the case of Murillo has supports
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more varied that's why I say this is a bit I have put here an image of a blank Canvas this Canvas is
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was prepared and printed, meaning that it would look like this and on this
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brown optical background the painter was already beginning to draw
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I could do it in black or white
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The normal thing in the creative process is to make free drawings and then draw on the Canvas before starting to paint.
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the drawing had to be with whites with chalk or white lead pencils and reviewed
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then with a brush brought here as a kind so that you can see what a pencil could be, a piece of cut plaster
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simulating a pencil and the writer's own
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escenino zeninis He already talks about a first drawing that is then reviewed with a brush of
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has a chapter has several chapters on this not of How to draw at the beginning on a board with charcoal and
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reviews in ink and Pacheco himself also speaks in them in the
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same terms says
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We have said at the beginning of this book that identical cardboards of the same size as the paintings are rarely made.
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that have to be painted in oil as well as small drawings by grid or by eye, having them in front of you could draw
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the figures or stories on the wall, boards or canvases, sheets or stones that
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In this there is no difference any more than in the ocreons if the things that are to be painted are large, life size or
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older ones will be made or long creons with subtle points of hard matte plaster and
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prepared with a cane three-quarters of a yard or a yard long, that is, on the tips of plaster for pictures
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big ones he fucked, I brought a cane
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It's green because I picked it up the day before yesterday and the tip of plaster went straight in.
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in the hollow of the reed and the painters drew for large compositions of the
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natural or greater with this level of separation or with this other
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I have brought another one for slightly smaller paintings and
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He says And then he says that with reeds of the same size
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one of the same size with a bunch of chicken feathers tied in the hole for which
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while one was drawing he could with the other hand with another reed with the feathers
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go erasing what went wrong and if you go let's say that outlining the scene there was
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free drawings that certainly, for example, by Velázquez from the
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There is no one left in Seville with absolute certainty, but they were already going with that in their heads.
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drawing and erasing at the same time and when they already had the drawing the planned drawing
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they went over it with a brush
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Velázquez would end up drawing by sketching directly in black but not before just before beginning to pinch in a process
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creative where it is even complex to be able to separate stages of drawing and painting, I have brought this image to
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Let you get an idea in a painting, in this case it is not quite simple, but it could be a drawing with plaster that
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then it would look like this and then it would be reviewed in black
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and on that you would start in the way you want to paint
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As an example of this, I brought one of the first paintings that surely
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They are by Velázquez, which is from around 1617. It is not true that Velázquez is already here.
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Velázquez almost the next 10 years not with this forcefulness of the still lifes where the objects seem to
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They are so forceful that it seems like they are filled with lead or these faces
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comical and disturbing like those of drunks when we see the
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infrared reflectography of these paintings we find a drawing in dark with the brush cleanings as
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characteristics of Velázquez that you can see here not saying no is not a thing
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characteristic only of Velázquez But well, it is one more point to take into account
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For example, El Greco cleaned his brushes from the leftover paint in
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The brushes cleaned the sides of the paintings and, for example, the altarpiece of Santa María de María de Aragón that was
26:33
preserved in the Prado and that was removed from the original altarpiece has revealed something that
26:40
We could possibly say that it would hide the altarpiece, which are the cleanings of the brush on both sides. Velázquez did not do them.
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at the extremes but above what I was painting and currently in
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paintings like drunks where the blue of the sky has become transparent is
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possible to directly see these brush cleanings, notice when I am now going to put the
27:06
drunk and maybe we can see them and well the drawing is in elements of
27:12
profiles the contouring of the most worked details Not here you see the lines
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of drawing the outline of the more complex elements or the underlying drawing clearly visible to the
27:27
view with reflectography in The small changes in composition here you see the line of this child's neck I don't know
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If you see it, it was in a different place than the position in which it was finally painted.
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And this is the x-ray here we find the certain profiles of
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Not those that Pacheco speaks in ambiguous terms and that there are specialists, sorry, these are these profiles of
27:54
clear in In the x-ray that and there are fellow specialists
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Let's say that they associate it with a drawing and that
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Others like me associate it with pictorial outlines after drawing
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Velázquez is almost modeling and I am going to use a somewhat inaccurate term but
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It is almost sculpting with a very dense paint and this paint I have brought Well
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Now we are going to see some details. It leaves a paint groove that contains more density of paint.
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of matter absorbs more radiation and therefore appears whiter on the x-ray
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The same occurs with more ambitious paintings from this first stage. Here we see visible reflectography and
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x-ray the very loose black drawing that is mainly seen in the changes This is
28:53
the head of the Magician King that is associated with a possible self-portrait of Velázquez and
28:58
Above we see that The King's Chest is drawn in black with a very loose brush but
29:05
very precise that I don't know why it was not painted and that we can therefore see with clarity
29:13
in the reflectography and and well And these are the very precise white profiles no
29:19
in some points no where Well then of and These are photos
29:25
grazing where you can see the profiling, notice that it has an almost sculptural appearance, it is not possible that
29:33
such dense paints with layers of color the amounts of pigment and therefore of lead white would be very
29:39
And of course to study the technique we also have to focus on the
29:44
visible image not the game of ties notice that as the way of being
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pasted even here it seems that he has rested one of the fingers and has left a fingerprint of Velázquez
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I collect fingerprints of painters because you find them in bandico there are so many because they go
30:05
probably printing the pictures on tables and moving them, which is
30:11
everything many edges surrounded by footprints and then in Velázquez it is very
30:16
impressive from the first moment the ability to combine draws with very flat areas and the talent as in the
30:23
beard to create a whole range of material textures with a few strokes like gray hair
30:30
Regarding the preparations, upon settling in Madrid in 1623, Velázquez adopted the typical red preparations
30:37
Madrid were the ones that were used but he adopted them without thinking or preferred
30:44
consciously choose the deep down we don't know It's likely that when
30:49
will arrive in Madrid and Viera las These are the Sevillians These are the the
30:54
Madrid and this is already a painting where they are already using the godmother if here we see the range of all the brown ones
31:01
Sevillians and the red ones from Madrid, it is perhaps possible that he will adapt to
31:09
what was being used in Madrid and at the same time it was even more
31:15
appropriate because they were more commonly used in painting.
31:22
red and gave it a brighter optical background tone. Perhaps it is likely that
31:27
you might like it here Well I don't see it from this screen but there must be some of them
31:33
the brush cleanings and we see in many points of the painting with the naked eye Even in this small photo
31:39
areas where the red optical background is visible that has not been completely covered
31:45
brought a detail notice, this is not the optical background on
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the one who drew and then painted this is important because there are paintings of
31:56
those that are discussed where they are made, for example I am going to cite one where there has been a discussion
32:03
tradition that is the supper of Emmaus that is preserved in the Metropolitan of New York was traditionally thought to be
32:11
a painting that was too evolved to have been done in Seville, however, when it was technically studied
32:17
It was discovered that it had a preparation of clay from Seville and then somehow
32:22
way it has to be placed there. I personally have no doubt, technically, because it seems unthinkable to me.
32:30
that already being in Madrid he went to prepare the primers
32:37
that they were using in Seville does not make sense and there are no precedents for accurately dated paintings
32:45
but I have brought an exception there are always exceptions it is not one that must be controlled
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In the research we are doing for the new Velázquez catalog we always find everything
32:58
type of exceptions but you have to put them together and draw conclusions from all that good. This is an exception, it is a picture that
33:04
It is known because Pacheco tells it in his book that is
33:10
made in Madrid that he sent it to Velázquez to make it
33:15
a portrait of Luis de Góngora in Madrid, however, when it was studied it should have had Madrid preparation.
33:21
Sevillian preparation, what explanation is there, well, there isn't much.
33:28
explanation but an explanation can be given thinking that the one who, being
33:33
his first trip to Madrid Velázquez without knowing where he was going to find canvases
33:38
primers and paintings in Madrid with which to work will take the Canvas
33:45
prepared from Seville with the size that Pacheco had already indicated Well, it's a bit of an excuse But it could be one of
33:52
the explanations at a certain moment and to me from
33:57
The technical point of view seems decisive to me in Velázquez's career. Rubens arrives in Madrid
34:06
Velázquez was a genius and was probably a genius from very early on.
34:12
There was no tradition in his family of artists; his parents had a position
34:20
obviously not from the nobility, but well, they were homeowners and without
34:29
However, his eldest son became a painter, which means that Velázquez must have shown an inclination towards painting from a very early age.
34:34
early in Pacheco's workshop, well, he surely must have triumphed
34:42
Absolutely and the golden proof is that Pacheco married him to his daughter, come on, that is the golden proof, no.
34:49
Then he tries to come to court, which was practically impossible. After the
34:55
first attempt of the first trip to Madrid and in the second he manages to get them to see the
35:00
painting that excites his painting and he is hired as a portrait painter and at court
35:06
Just getting promoted this surely created an important and important rivalry with his co-workers.
35:14
In some way we have evidence that it was like this because in 1627 a
35:19
contest to find out who is the best painter in which nardy cajés and
35:26
above all Carducho who was the great painter at that time at court and
35:31
Velázquez deals with the proposed expulsion of the Moriscos by
35:39
Unfortunately, the painting that Velázquez made burned in the castle fire of 1634-35 on New Year's Eve of that one of those
35:47
years of that year but the fact is that well he also won
35:53
Velázquez also won the contest not to say there is even in the treaty of
35:58
carducho there are well veiled complaints to a painter that some
36:05
They have wanted to interpret it as referring to Velázquez. The fact is that one year
36:12
After winning the contest, Rubens arrives in Madrid and now with Rubens Velázquez he cannot and the clearest proof
36:21
is that the portrait the famous equestrian portrait that no one knows where it is
36:28
disappeared that Velázquez made in the first years and that was hanging in the quarterdeck is taken down to hang one of the
36:35
same theme the same King also equestrian by rubens a humiliation at court
36:42
certainly tremendous palatial but from a technical point of view
36:47
Velázquez has the opportunity to meet the Great European painter of the
36:53
moment must have been a shock, I'm going to say it, let's say like this a little
36:59
but Velázquez was a painter in some way yet to be formed, he had a
37:06
extraordinary talent but he had not made the leap he would take at this moment The fact is that he knows rubens and
37:13
one of the decisive issues to know that there was contact between them that of course for Pacheco says
37:20
that rubes had little to do with painters, but the one he had the most to deal with was
37:26
Velázquez does not With his son-in-law because they are the primers it is incredible because it is
37:31
as information that we had hidden and that this evidence has been coming to light and they already said it ago
37:40
It's been good in '97, I think a
37:45
on this topic but we have been delving deeper and we actually have the evidence now that it must have been like this rubens
37:53
used very white preparations, practically no one used white preparations in the environment of
38:01
the court except Marino at some point And look at what the x-rays of
38:08
rubens these are the copies that rubens made in Madrid during the time he
38:13
This is the copy of Titian's Adam and Eve, look at how much white lead
38:20
The paint must be barely perceptible because the radiographic density of the primer itself absorbs all the
38:28
radiation good It is true that it is sense here Eve's leg Even the torso a little of Adam no but but notice What
38:35
x-ray itself has power and look at what Velázquez does based on Rubens' knowledge and here it is
38:43
Comparative radiographs changed radically from that point on.
38:49
moment What advantage did all this have in using white preparations that did not
38:56
It is nothing new in painting. Flemish paint is made with calcium carbonate. Hispanic Flemish painting is
39:02
made on plaster which in the end is practically the same no but it is something that had been lost no and now
39:08
almost no one used it But this in Velázquez particularly creates an effect
39:13
of extraordinary textures because the white background with the paint so diluted
39:18
by Velázquez creates a backlit effect where the light, let's say, hits the white background and returns
39:25
towards us through colored transparencies, something that Velázquez also used with a special
39:31
ability and effectiveness then to summarize because from
39:38
now Velázquez Ya will use this type of preparations throughout his life, Sevillian preparations and I say it
39:44
Also thinking about the chronology of the paintings from the primers we could date the paintings from
39:51
Velázquez partly not Sevillian preparations Seville clay red preparations from Madrid
39:57
And this is a little surprising there is a moment when there are over red preparations white reprimings it is as if
40:05
in paintings dated Precisely at that moment it is as if Velázquez the paintings
40:11
that I had in the workshop unpainted but primed in red you would take them
40:16
The white reprints are happening, paintings like this one don't happen
40:25
what happens in Italy Well, in Italy everything happens not because it is true that you have to
40:32
also understand that it is a journey that the artist has to nurture.
40:39
little of what there is not in every place but Melate in Italy we see these For a
40:45
part a a preparation here is not so real size scale a preparation
40:51
which is similar to the Sevillanas but which are also the ones being used in Italy. On the other hand, a preparation
40:59
similar to the sevillanas that are being used in Italy but reprinted
41:05
as we have seen the previous paintings And for the first time a painting
41:10
completely primed in white, it will be the first one I make completely
41:15
Velázquez who are The Forge of Vulcano and These are
41:20
the test tubes that were made with the quantities of white lead and
41:26
oil that the treaties say, it is not true that with linseed oil these funds have turned a little yellow
41:32
over time, but you see that they are essentially clear, no, because they could be these, they could be these.
41:40
and the drawing from now on is a very essential drawing. Although it is true that
41:47
very precise, not with very few lines, look here at the drawing in its pure state, let's say
41:54
we can know that it is Philip IV
42:00
or in the drawings here they are real size scale I'm going to see them I'm going to
42:06
expand but now we see not a very schematic drawing and at the same time very Exact, very
42:13
precise and how interesting these drawings are, not with certain changes in composition with respect to the image as you have devised
42:21
the figure also works a little, the spinola face also works a little
42:28
or here not this extraordinary young man portrait painting from Munich
42:33
where to fix the drawing along the profile of the face or on the neck
42:41
or this non-masterful detail
42:46
or what happens with the seamstress perhaps from the 50s since the drawing and the sketch are the same thing where the
42:52
carving of the colors is to tell the truth, it is as Pacheco says, not where you start painting and according to this process
42:58
carnations clothes landscapes and again ending for the carnations is
43:04
to say where the carving of the colors and the final painting are also the same thing
43:16
In the most finished works of the 1930s the drawing seems to have disappeared, the color is not a drawing
43:23
Look at how it beads. How it is outlining the figure with the blue colors.
43:29
the drawing has been transfigured into color and color into light
43:36
and this leads me to an important reflection at this conference in a very few years.
43:41
Velázquez has gone from brown primers to red to red to white to
43:46
the Sevillian still lifes to the drunks and from the drunks to La Fragua we can say that technically Velázquez has
43:53
reached its maturity but this is also the slightly more scandalous term that I want to introduce here today to its
44:00
plenitude will continue to make miraculous pictures but we can no longer say that
44:05
Technically, Velázquez needs more resources than he has and those he controls. Now we have a concept of the
44:13
evolution of Progress as a very good optimist, but Velázquez at this moment has reached such a height that
44:20
rather than continuing to ascend we can say that it plans for her
44:25
I speak from the technique, this painter from the 1930s would never have thought of painting a painting like Las Meninas.
44:31
What I'm saying is that if he had been told to do it, he would have been able to do something similar to the
44:38
meninas of the drunks to La Fragua have
44:43
It's only been two years and look, they are two different worlds, two years
44:51
from Baltasar Carlos to the daisy, 20 years have passed
44:57
We could make it even more difficult by not comparing the spears. Well, with the
45:02
spinners and we are going to do it on this slide maybe it looks more
45:09
clearly the differences but it is more understood Honestly what I want to say here there is an evolution but there is no
45:17
a Revolution as it had existed before
45:24
a beautiful example of a complete cycle rather than the creative process of innocence
45:30
we did is like Prehistory, the history and history of the creative process of the tenth Innocent is not a
45:36
process also full of unknowns where you have to fill in the gaps Palomino says that to do
45:43
hands [Music] portrayed Juan as a couple
45:49
It is true that David García Cueto commented that and
45:56
It is an interesting hypothesis not that he distanced this portrait a little from what was the tenth portrait of innocence.
46:03
Actually this painting was finished in March 1650 and in summer it is portraying
46:08
To the dad it's three four months, well it doesn't seem like too long to me either.
46:13
Furthermore, we do not know the ins and outs that it could have meant or the complexity of
46:18
portray the Pope no and it seems to me that in this process they play a role
46:23
significant these small drawings that are also on a scale of
46:30
real size but I am going to enlarge them not the drawings because of the intensity of His
46:37
wealth also not the points of view the positions the pope in front The Pope in profile the positions of sitting at a
46:45
side or others are drawings that have to do with the precise and effective drawing of
46:50
Velázquez is not like a painter looking for solutions and this seems to me to fit very well into the creative process that
46:57
Velázquez could have had the possibility of seeing the Pope's alpaca for a very short time or perhaps in one
47:04
kind of meeting, well, or when the Pope receives people, now I don't exactly get the idea.
47:10
word not from Exacto an audience
47:17
Curiously, what is clumsy about them gives it greater authenticity: they are like work tools in their purest form.
47:24
in some way one feels that they could be the seeds of the painting we know
47:30
and then this is the picture then it is important in this case the size of the
47:37
portrait of innocence tenth for something we talked about at the beginning of this talk the painting measures 1.40 by 1.20 and
47:45
remember that the maximum fabric widths that were used in
47:51
Seville and commonly also in Madrid and Toledo was 115, this exceeds a little
47:58
that size Velázquez could have found one of the couriers in Rome that
48:03
were larger than this size, well we don't know exactly if because he didn't find them or because he wanted to make one.
48:12
richer fabric The fact is that for this case he used a fabric with a typical pattern
48:17
Italian to say if we had nothing that this man is the pope and that the
48:22
painting is by Velázquez and we could reach the conclusion only by seeing this type of fabric that has a drawing
48:27
What is commonly called are tablecloth drawings but specifically they are called terliz And it is typical Italian we could come to
48:34
conclusion that it is an Italian painter who made this painting. The fact is that to avoid a seam or due to the
48:41
richness of the painting in this case Velázquez perhaps recalled the
48:47
fabrics with drawings from his early adulthood in Seville and took a screw
48:54
and then to finish the process of the painting that has a success. You remember
49:01
copies are made of tropobero and one of the copies of
49:07
which is documented because even Palomino tells it in his biography of
49:14
Velázquez is that Velázquez himself makes a copy of his portrait and how well
49:20
All critics think that it is the painting that is kept in the Wellington Museum in London
49:26
taken from Bonaparte's luggage
49:34
Pepe bottle's famous luggage
49:39
and that has ended Unfortunately in London and from these two portraits already
49:44
later copies of this portrait that is preserved as Velázquez's circle
49:51
in the National gallery in Washington it is an extraordinary painting but much of it
49:57
of the critics think that it is not by Velázquez Bueno also tells us about the success of the paintings
50:07
briefly, as if at a slide, I'm talking about the technique and
50:13
a little of Velázquez's resources but now I want to focus on those, what I said in plural, those techniques, those tricks
50:20
of Velázquez also linked with his technique and that we can
50:26
and that we can bias the general to give it greater importance, for example
50:32
color in Velázquez I have brought a photocopied list of pigments that already in its day
50:39
Carmen Garrido said, I think that practically nothing could be modified, it's the pigments they used.
50:45
all the painters in the case of Velázquez It is true that he uses and here I have brought this slide
50:51
pigments such as lapis lazuli that were not available to all painters in the blue gun and were more expensive than the
50:58
gold and was a pigment that many painters used
51:03
especially on the surfaces, for example. I am now remembering the case of the Tintoretto lavatory that is
51:09
painted with azurite and then gives it a series of shines with pus lazuli doing the trick that all the blue is
51:15
lapis lazuli sometimes from the descendants of Van Der Weyden. By the way, it has been said that it is the most
51:21
expensive from the Prado Museum because the quantity and quality of the blue pencil
51:26
and the mantle of the Virgin is extraordinary
51:31
and well three three pieces of information only about the color
51:37
which are the usual green ones used by celebrities
51:42
Velázquez's greens are practically 99.9% mixing these famous blue
51:50
greens are not beautiful, you are not mixing blue with yellow and when
51:58
If you look at them in detail you see that they are indeed green, what they seemed to you from a distance is that they are
52:03
practically blue also does not mean that there are times when the mixture of yellow is scarce
52:10
or the red ones with azurite and lacquer
52:16
of cochineal lacquer has achieved these shades of red by playing with the
52:22
transparencies of the background with the densities mixed with lead white, mixing the Zurita with the lacquer to
52:30
the purple ones or the black ones, the famous black ones of
52:36
Velázquez are almost all made with carbon black
52:42
In some points it has black smoke but look no
52:50
Van Gogh said. In an atheist letter his brother said, Hey, why do they criticize me for using black people? I haven't.
52:56
used Franks Rembrand Velázquez
53:02
Boza spoke about the details that I loved it, I'm going to do it
53:07
Look, I don't remember the word no but it's true that Velázquez seems to be painting not with the brush, just the brush.
53:14
loose bird that says what Rafael Alberti says, not that he paints carelessly, however, if one studies him, Velázquez
53:21
It is full of details and those details done very quickly and precisely are
53:27
always informative about many things, boza did not talk about the clearance of the palace, no
53:34
the lack of shrinkage, which is something that is a very good term, I copied it for that reason because it also has to do with
53:40
the technique Not that that way of painting Well look here not these
53:45
elements truly of technical deployment, not that for that in part
53:50
painted this painting is the one that Velázquez brought to Madrid to teach in the palace and then he had the
53:58
opportunity when Fonseca died to catalog and inventory Fonseca's collection and
54:06
gave his own painting the highest value I have taken as a detail as an example to
54:15
the details this painting that seems to have almost no details This is the nineteenth-century image that we actually have the
54:22
picture with good photography gives this Vision
54:29
and I have brought a series of details from the painting in addition to the crudeness that could go unnoticed not by some
54:36
elements Here we see how there are nails below
54:41
The wood even one of the nails has a metallic shine that holds the super year is not something that could happen
54:48
unnoticed and that Velázquez has bothered to paint then there are drops of lacquer but there are also some drops of
54:55
of vermilion I don't see it here but I'm going to point it out to you
55:02
How do I see myself, not that they denote a level of loving?
55:08
get into the details good surprising
55:15
how blood made with lacquer appears on Jesus' side and some
55:22
shines of water that are telling us that the Roman soldier has just taken
55:30
the spear from the chest of Jesus and has sprouted, as the Gospel of Saint John says, Blood and Water, which is a theme that also
55:37
Van Der does in his crucifixion in the painting that is preserved in the
55:43
escorial detail therefore of certain importance and iconographic and speaking of importance
55:48
iconographically, a disputed topic is whether Jesus was crucified naked as was the
55:55
custom in Roman crucifixions part of
56:01
The heartbreaking thing about the crucifixion was the humiliation of being exposed to the crucifixion and being stared at like the
56:08
blood that falls from it passes under the cloth and goes underneath in some way
56:14
Velázquez is informing us of something that appears in the apocryphal gospels, the Gospel of James speaks
56:21
that a person felt sorry for Jesus and ran and put the cloth on him or Saint María Jesús de Ágreda speaks of
56:29
that the executioners who were going to undress Jesus paralyzed the hands is that Santa María de Jesús de ágreda is very opportune
56:36
because she is the nun with whom Felipe IV regularly corresponded
56:43
Well, he talks about how the executioners who were going to take away the purity cloth had their hands paralyzed.
56:49
here again the lacquer blood but also with small drops of vermilion that fall here on the knots of the
56:56
wood the gray of the hand the greenish gray of a dead hand
57:02
or how he has differentiated the tone of the wood of the scaffold, which is what The prisoner of Speed was carrying is that it is the
57:10
wood that was always nailed to the Calvary as it has simulated even the
57:15
spikes that encased the two pieces in the adoration of the magi, the
57:23
stars a Good theme of great relevance and iconography and it is a theme that measures what is measured in my photos at size
57:30
real scale measures two centimeters and three, it's nothing, no, and yet it's there, and it's also on the edge so in the
57:37
edge that right now I guess it will be hidden, look. Where the edge of the painting is, it will be hidden because of what it bites.
57:43
the frame of the painting not or the sparks not coming out of La Fragua
57:53
Finding this expression of amazement is listening as Apollo tells him.
57:59
He is telling Vulcan To the poor Vulcan that his wife is cheating on him, no, but notice how well
58:05
how good the expression of absolute astonishment is, just as the
58:11
Another day Fernando Marías commented that I think it is a discovery too.
58:16
the blind gaze of the old woman frying eggs, which is also
58:22
It is true that he is not looking at the child and the truth is that when he said it, no, I had never read it and it seems to me that
58:27
is right and then those delicate and slightly stuttering hands, not one of the
58:33
of the blind people touching the things that happen to the old woman frying eggs I don't think what she talked about thematization
58:40
the touch is very very successful
58:45
the slime falling from Velázquez's horses that refer to the portraits of
58:53
rubens where that happened which in turn refers to the equestrian portraits
58:58
of a literary type because they are not preserved from apelles or these species of parts that are
59:07
coming out from under the spider becoming a spider that can be
59:12
the legs of the spider as cited in the translations of some of the
59:17
translations from the 16th and 17th centuries that Velázquez may have had in his workshop
59:24
Another of the key topics to understand Velázquez's resources is the issue of tracing, no one doubts in this specific case
59:30
that the original painting is that of the Prado and everyone accepts that of the
59:36
private collection in Madrid on the right as a work also by Velázquez in the same way that many doubt that the
59:42
foreign private collection which is the one in the center Pardon be by Velázquez
59:51
However, the two copies are closer to each other than either is to the original, perhaps if
59:58
accepts one of the copies as original, the other must also be accepted or if
1:00:04
none is affected reject the two not the two copies technically fabric preparation x-rays are very close
1:00:11
by Velázquez but they lack quality; however, if you think about an assistant, the works are too good and
1:00:18
too rare, because an assistant would have tried to copy the vibration of the colorist's face, something that the copyist has not
1:00:25
made an optimistic solution In these very abundant cases in Velázquez it would be
1:00:32
to think that Velázquez copied them but because of the fatigue of repeating himself and above all because of not having the model in front of him because
1:00:38
copy from life as Pacheco advised and as he criticized
1:00:44
carducho no, what did these painters who copy from nature say, I tell you how
1:00:50
like the summary, that's not why I'm criticizing those who copy from nature and
1:00:57
concludes That is why I would say that it must be studied from nature and not copied
1:01:07
that copying made a work of poorer quality But this would lead to having to talk about a first-class Velázquez
1:01:13
division and a second-class Velázquez, also original, which is something that today is not accepted. The pessimistic solution is
1:01:21
that an assistant did it but it brings a new problem This young artist in Seville Velázquez did not have an assistant
1:01:28
capable of making works that we have to describe as very good, very good if we do not compare it with The Originals, which is
1:01:35
precisely those that the Velasquistas rightly say must be done and what
1:01:40
had when he had just opened the workshop in Seville, this has to be given, there has not been a problem that
1:01:47
there is still no solution given regarding Velázquez this is not the face
1:01:52
from that of Sister Jerónima de la Fuente
1:01:58
del Prado And this is the copy
1:02:07
on this topic of Velázquez not Velázquez wrote the article about which I have said that I even gave a title that
1:02:13
It was almost a rhyme and the final conclusion of the article wrote a long article
1:02:18
explaining the brush cleanings the type of support used but but the
1:02:24
final conclusion of the article is that many times we have to say whether it is Velázquez or not Velázquez for a reason
1:02:29
so taken by the hair, so complicated to define what quality is, no
1:02:35
This is the detail of what photographed
1:02:41
The screen, let's say of the National gallery, of the website launches the gallery where this painting that I think
1:02:48
which is by Velázquez and also means people of more authority like Fernando Marías who were the first
1:02:54
I read it to him or Cruz Baldovinos. Well, it continues to be attributed with
1:03:00
possibly to the disciple of Velázquez's son-in-law and disciple Juan Bautista
1:03:06
Martínez del Mazo well, I'm not going to explain this to you in
1:03:12
detail because because we are already on the edge of time but the issue of tracing
1:03:17
that in Seville it was a way to make the work profitable, in Madrid it became
1:03:27
almost a professional obligation because Blaska's obligation was to make the king's portraits and nurture the image
1:03:33
real to different places and in many cases to Velázquez himself, as in this case he had to copy himself in
1:03:41
This case is Velázquez modeling himself, there are very slight differences in quality that cannot be noticed, but
1:03:48
Nobody doubts that these are two paintings by Velázquez and they are identical at the same size
1:03:53
The tracing process, which I will tell you very briefly, is this: on a painting already made, a piece of paper was taken and
1:04:02
shaved the shaving way of making a paper transparent already come in the
1:04:09
first treaties that we preserve, which is by giving them different coats of oil to
1:04:14
make it more and more transparent, these papers were sticking to each other
1:04:20
Here I have shown how glued with sealing wax could be simply glued and once done the composition was traced.
1:04:28
that was below, these tracings did not have to be of the complete painting, it was more in Velázquez
1:04:34
We are certain that they were not from the complete painting because one part and another are traced, for example this painting
1:04:40
with respect to that of the Metropolitan in New York and then the tracings do not fit exactly, it is like Velázquez
1:04:46
I would have made the top part and then the bottom part separately and fitted it together with some
1:04:51
centimeters of difference when you had already contoured the profile of the frame the
1:04:59
painting that you wanted to do, you turned it over, you already had it, you turned it over and outlined those areas with charcoal
1:05:08
that you wanted to transfer to the tracing, then that was put on the surface
1:05:15
primed of a Canvas and the profiles were reviewed again, making sure that by removing the paper they had remained
1:05:21
marked the outline that they wanted to trace, I had the painting at the same size copied and now
1:05:30
then you had to paint. This is what they did with the nuns. What happens is that then the paint on the nuns has faded.
1:05:36
become much drier for reasons that, as I have told you, we do not know
1:05:41
This is almost impossible, you will see that it is by working as a team that these two paintings were attributed to each other and I have given you
1:05:48
two two details a little bit dramatic in that sense, not the picture made
1:05:55
With almost nothing it looks like it's a watercolor and perhaps the clumsiest of the entire series.
1:06:00
of the equestrian portraits in the hall of kingdoms, which is that of Margaret of Austria. And these paintings, well, they are attributed
1:06:08
to Velázquez then Velázquez and the workshop have been nuanced but they were paid to
1:06:13
he is saying that they were leaving his workshop
1:06:18
These are the paintings and we see by technically studying these paintings that
1:06:23
They were paintings that were printed according to the guidelines. No, I'm not going to tell you that Velázquez himself printed
1:06:30
the paintings that have never been known if it is the head of the workshop who printed the painting, possibly it was done by a
1:06:36
assistant following guidelines but they are following Velázquez's rules
1:06:41
and about him as we highlighted in an article by Javier Portús in which
1:06:47
We collaborate Rocío Dávila The restaurateur and I highlighted that once
1:06:54
Once the painting was primed, the sketch must have been Velázquez's own, which is something
1:07:01
that due to the ambition of all these portraits, Elías Tormo already said it in 1912
1:07:07
saying, they are paintings so brave and with such compositional ambition that they had
1:07:13
than Velázquez himself sketched and he is indeed right, as has been proven by the infrared reflectography that we have
1:07:19
made a few years ago no this is the contrast not the one I have given you
1:07:26
since Velázquez makes the head of the horse and how The assistant in these
1:07:33
Martínez del Mazo collaborated on paintings and an assistant collaborated whose name we have not yet been able to give.
1:07:41
And how Velázquez once the assistant says sketch passes The assistant to
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work in detail everything that Velázquez had ordered and Velázquez goes back over the painting and corrects what he
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consider and here you see how the hand painted by the assistant has been
1:07:59
completely corrected by Velázquez, I particularly like this detail like the escarcela of the
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plaster has later been smudged by Velázquez wanting to hide all those
1:08:14
details that the poor assistant had patiently made
1:08:19
of course here, as in all many of Velázquez's paintings, of course the
1:08:24
Innocent the tenth the copy that I have told you or these paintings are copied from each other. Here we see that the
1:08:31
assistant or Velázquez himself traced a portrait of Mariana in a painting that
1:08:37
a portrait of Velázquez was already preserved either as Velázquez or the assistants
1:08:45
which was already preserved from that of Queen Isabel de Borbón
1:08:53
o This example that perhaps you have already been given of how something also strange
1:09:00
not the cardinal chenny that where everyone appreciates that the
1:09:05
painted head of the cardinal is made by Velázquez While all the elements of the composition are
1:09:12
probably made by Pietro María Neri, well it's easy to make up a story
1:09:19
with this they did not ask him for the portrait that Velázquez said he did not have with that phlegm that seems to put a little
1:09:25
Felipe IV was nervous or maybe he liked it but he said he didn't have time.
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says Well, make me the head, no And this is what appears in this painting, it is a very typical head of Velázquez's work.
1:09:37
second trip to Italy and yet from the neck Velázquez has already disappeared
1:09:44
well regarding the composition I have taken the title here a little
1:09:50
emblematic of of is that no I don't see it here well it was
1:09:57
by Diego Angle, a book that has how he composed his main paintings that
1:10:02
It is a delicious book By the way and good and we see a little what I have gone too
1:10:08
explaining not how Velázquez from the first moment until practically the drunks is doing and
1:10:15
They are also words of Jonathan Brown who says it so that I am not accused, they are just a kind of still lifes
1:10:21
some still lifes that, as Pacheco said, still lifes are a minor painting and maybe even less if he paints it.
1:10:27
Damn no, you don't know how he paints them, no, and well, those are paintings.
1:10:34
extraordinary Not to me one of my favorite paintings by Velázquez is this one of the water bearer of Seville where I already said
1:10:40
Peter Cherry the conference that a little the boy in the background is a little bit the Jose Nieto of Las Meninas, not the character who
1:10:48
is at the bottom are But this is where in some way the great the great is given
1:10:54
step here are figures that have volume on their own, it is like a gallery almost of sculptures, not that where you can border
1:11:00
each of the figures and even more complex a painting like the surrender
1:11:06
from breda Where playing with those masses of characters still continues to create
1:11:12
spaces not like the space that exists around here, the gap that has created it through the light that falls on this
1:11:18
character is a bit like very impressive these are the pictures but here what
1:11:25
I wanted to point out to you this this detail these are the pictures of the battle room of the Kingdom Hall according to the
1:11:31
layout of the inventory of 1701 which is quite interesting because there is like a row where well vulgarly some
1:11:39
historians say the old painters and here the young ones don't know where maíno has gotten that could belong to the
1:11:46
old but he has a young spirit and has gotten involved with zurbarán Velázquez Leonardo
1:11:53
It is interesting because of the confrontation of some paintings with others and from there it has
1:12:00
I deduced what from these white signatures with which I began the conference because the white signatures of Velázquez without signature
1:12:05
none of them were in front of the super-historical carducho signatures with gold letters and could create a contrast
1:12:12
interesting here what catches my attention the most
1:12:18
This of this Vision is that you will see that a strange thing has been done that no one has done And it is that it has distanced the
1:12:24
characters, all the characters are very Zen-like, very on the edge of the composition and Velázquez has put them
1:12:31
internally, the surrender of Vereda was the only battle in which the
1:12:38
considerably the scale from the protagonists, thus increasing the spatial distance between the scene
1:12:44
represented and the viewer something that was fundamental Leonardo Da Vinci himself says that the painting
1:12:51
You have to look at it from three times the width of the painting, something that could not happen in the
1:12:58
hall of kingdoms the hall of kingdom measured 10 meters wide and there were paintings that measured four almost four and a half no
1:13:04
there was that distance, saying that was already a problem from the start, no
1:13:09
a subtle and I speak one is used is a subtlety
1:13:16
not but important that it plays in favor of a naturalness opposed to the theatrical and artificial narration of
1:13:24
the generals of the other paintings Even in those of Zurbarán or Giuseppe Leonardo set that extracted to size
1:13:32
real a carducho general with spinola the general represented by Velázquez
1:13:37
look what happens This is the actual scale size, it cannot
1:13:43
see the radicality of the Velasqueña proposal not with respect to other characters
1:13:51
In the naked eye x-rays, even the general x-ray, it is seen that the corner of the squares are
1:13:56
cut and it's good, it's something that was already known, no
1:14:03
It even looks partly invisible but it was confirmed with the x-rays that
1:14:09
They did well that the 80s were in the Museum but being cut off and knowing
1:14:18
knowing the spaces of the hall of kingdoms all the interpretations of
1:14:24
Of the kidnapping portraits placed on the walls of the room, the corners were inevitably cut because they did not fit.
1:14:31
the paintings because it was known that the height of the balcony was five meters and 30 well in the article which is that
1:14:39
we wrote with with Javier we gave this hypothesis I had it with
1:14:46
emotion with the emotion of the researcher who is penetrating a topic such as
1:14:51
incredible and my friends when I told it to them before it finished they told me hungry no that's in Las Puertas I
1:14:58
They have always investigated me these two years and now they tell me but well, it was good because deep down it is evidence of
1:15:04
where they should be, the interpretation was much more complex than the interpretation that until then had been
1:15:10
fact and that is that the piece of cut corner had been kept behind the
1:15:15
painting in a warehouse and when the paintings were removed from good retirement and taken to the new palace someone
1:15:22
He remembered Hey, let's put the corners that we removed was much more unlikely
1:15:28
not good at this. This is precisely what is being worked on now with the restoration of the queens hall But the
1:15:34
idea was essentially This is not true that when it was opened that when it was
1:15:41
He accessed the living room through one of the side doors that gave access to the
1:15:46
balcony because this kind of trompe l'oeil was created, although the painting moved
1:15:52
a bit
1:15:59
well the pentimentis the changes the reuses already for example in this
1:16:04
You are seeing something that is already seen invisible in the paintings, which are the changes in the horses' legs and here it seemed appropriate to me and it has
1:16:12
made kind of illusion bring the photography of Carmen Garrido's own book where all the is that in
1:16:19
Velázquez all the changes are significant and they are important and so it is a bit painful to bring to
1:16:24
collation only some instead of all Well, in the book Velázquez had evolution, you cannot review table by
1:16:30
I describe Velázquez's changes and some are so significant that I have started with the most significant of them.
1:16:36
everyone that under Velázquez's head in las meninas appears the portrait of what looks like another person is
1:16:43
a change because the meninas partly makes sense because Velázquez is portraying himself among the family of the
1:16:50
No King and let another person appear, well, it's a change.
1:16:57
significant and significant this with respect to the changes with respect to the
1:17:03
reuse here you see below the x-ray that another head appears
1:17:08
It is Cardinal Infante himself
1:17:15
that he portrayed himself upside down and that Velázquez, for some unknown reason, may not have liked it.
1:17:21
As the painting was coming out, he turned the Canvas over and it was face down to
1:17:26
always that first portrait here the head of one of the drunks
1:17:31
Notice how here he is using The Cape of the Brush that Carducho talks about
1:17:37
Not in the treaty on the back of the brush to bead part of the fingers
1:17:42
o This change that is seen with the naked eye like many of Velázquez's changes when one already knows them, one sees them
1:17:49
in painting is not a change that also has its importance not because it is opening
1:17:55
It is making room for the character behind it, who otherwise would be a little absent from the composition, this one too.
1:18:03
important good the changes in the horse's legs the lower lances This is a
1:18:09
iconically also important or this of the also famous of the head
1:18:15
of a vulcan in another position, not that it also looks invisible, notice how that head can be sensed here, no, but everything
1:18:23
This brings me to a new concept of change that I think has gone unnoticed on many occasions precisely because it is so obvious.
1:18:30
They are composition changes discovered through technical documentation but rather small changes with respect to the
1:18:37
reality of things Well, attention has already been drawn, for example, that it would be impossible for Philip IV and
1:18:43
Margarita were portrayed in the mirrors of the meninas that size at the distance at which they were would appear
1:18:49
infinitely smaller Velázquez uses reality at his convenience
1:18:57
look at the vulcan head and
1:19:04
not how it has been modified, here I put both, not this is the one I have
1:19:10
modified in Adobe Photoshop And this is the real one Not maybe what has lengthened the neck in an unnatural way
1:19:16
of vulcano is two three centimeters But the important thing is that the
1:19:21
reality in favor of expressiveness, not in this case of astonishment, it is a face that seems out of place, not
1:19:31
or the legs, look at the legs of Philip IV in this case. Well, you see again what the changes look like below.
1:19:38
from the portrait of Philip IV appears from this portrait of 1628 appears Philip IV of
1:19:44
1624, which in turn is traced on the painting of the Metropolitan. Well, these are
1:19:51
the legs and look at these like this they appear ridiculous not almost like
1:19:58
a person twice as small not to this type of subtle but important change the reality This is what
1:20:04
I have modified and this is the real one to these types of subtle changes but
1:20:10
important, an explanation must be given taking into account technical aspects, for example tracings, aspects
1:20:15
visual or decorative not Where the painting is going to be placed, for example to me
1:20:21
It has always seemed to me that the painting Margaret of Austria's horse, the Hall of Kingdoms, had a lot of problems.
1:20:27
but it is some strangeness that disappears when the painting is hung one size at a time.
1:20:35
a height to which he is never exposed, which is one meter 45, which is possibly what he was exposed to in the classroom.
1:20:41
kingdoms or the belly of Baltasar Carlos's horse, to give an even more famous example, you also have to have
1:20:48
take into account pictorial aspects, not narrative expressiveness as in the case of Vulcano or Moda, not the elegance of
1:20:54
thin legs like in this case no one might also think no
1:21:00
I am going to say this very briefly through the composition changes in
1:21:06
the siranderas good to propose to recover the
1:21:12
hypothesis discarded since Angulo gave it for the first time in 1948, which was that in the
1:21:20
scene the first scene of the spinners also represents the matter
1:21:26
mythological is something that all historians have discarded but in radiography and reflectography there is
1:21:33
a series of composition changes that indicate that Velázquez worked intensely in that area and are and are
1:21:39
changes of significant type for example this this character was looking at before
1:21:44
from the front he is now looking at this character here and it led me to propose a vision of the story
1:21:52
Ovid's narrative that had not been taken into account until then was what the old woman, the goddess disguised as
1:22:01
old woman is going to warn aracne not to confront the Goddess to what aracne
1:22:06
He says that she defeats the goddess and so on. And then the confrontation comes and this, for example, is
1:22:12
an engraving that looks similar is precisely the engraving that comes in
1:22:18
two of the editions that historians independently think may have
1:22:25
have Velázquez in his library because he knows the inventory of the books he had, which is
1:22:31
Ludovico Dolce from Venice of 1568 and the metamorphoses of which it is the
1:22:38
translation of the licentiate Viana of 1590
1:22:44
what and look like Well then Even if this was really palas athena
1:22:51
It would even be permissible to imagine that the famous spinning wheel symbolizes Athena's shield, not the goddess's ejido.
1:22:59
Here we end up going a little over time and leaving so many behind.
1:23:04
things could not be talked about Eternally about Velázquez Javier said it for your cons
1:23:09
Regarding precisely the meninas in the documentary film, the painting does not say
1:23:16
Velázquez has known how to be ambiguous enough so that we continue mulling over the meaning
1:23:21
of his lifelong paintings, it is impressive to see at the end of this journey
1:23:28
these two images these two details that separate almost 40 years different
1:23:34
different fabric primer different way of understanding the portrait one as vera effigy of a good
1:23:42
The nuns of the Poor Clares convent of Seville surely understood that she was a Saint, not that she was going to die.
1:23:48
Filipinos to found a convent and that they would never see her again, no, and it is more in the inscription that appears. This is the
1:23:55
figurine like and has the charming face of an infanta in the most beautiful portrait
1:24:01
unsuspected of a royal family that has ever been painted a technician studies
1:24:06
These two images are technically with the x-rays and it would be impossible for them to
1:24:11
came to the conclusion that they were made by the same artist but the same artist uniting, embracing these two worlds, the
1:24:18
Velázquez's story, more than the glory of a man, represents the triumph of painting and this was largely done
1:24:23
Thanks to that indisputable miracle, impossible and simple, striking as well as silent, of his technique. Many
