Editing Diego Velázquez (section)

==Italian period==
In 1629, Velázquez was given permission to spend a year and a half in Italy. Although this first visit is recognized as a crucial chapter in the development of his style—and in the history of Spanish Royal Patronage, since Philip{{nbsp}}IV sponsored his trip—few details and specifics are known of what the painter saw, whom he met, how he was perceived and what innovations he hoped to introduce into his painting.

He traveled to [[Venice]], [[Ferrara]], [[Cento]], [[Loreto, Marche|Loreto]], [[Bologna]], and [[Rome]].<ref name="Sánchez_Grove"/> In 1630, he visited [[Naples]] to paint the portrait of [[Maria Anna of Spain]], and there he probably met [[Jusepe de Ribera|Ribera]].<ref name="Sánchez_Grove"/> The major works from his first Italian period are ''Joseph's Bloody Coat brought to Jacob'' (1629–30) and ''[[Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan]]'' (1630), both of which reveal his ambition to rival the Italians as a history painter in the grand manner.<ref>Carr et al. 2006, p. 33.</ref> The two compositions of several nearly life-sized figures have similar dimensions, and may have been conceived as pendants—the biblical scene depicting a deception, and the mythological scene depicting the revelation of a deception.<ref name="Carr_157">Carr et al. 2006, p. 157.</ref> As he had done in ''The Triumph of Bacchus'', Velázquez presented his characters as contemporary people whose gestures and facial expressions were those of everyday life.<ref>Carr et al. 2006, p. 147.</ref> Following the example of Bolognese painters such as [[Guido Reni]], Velázquez painted ''Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan'' on canvas prepared with a light gray ground rather than the dark reddish ground of all his earlier works. The change resulted in a greater luminosity than he had previously achieved, and he made the use of light-gray grounds his regular practice.<ref name="Carr_157"/>

===Return to Madrid (middle period)===
[[File:Velázquez - de Breda o Las Lanzas (Museo del Prado, 1634-35).jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''[[La rendición de Breda]]'' (1634–35) was inspired by Velázquez's first visit to Italy, in which he accompanied [[Ambrogio Spinola, marqués de los Balbases|Ambrogio Spinola]], who conquered the Dutch city of Breda a few years prior. It depicts a transfer of the key to the city from the Dutch to the Spanish army during the [[Siege of Breda (1624)|Siege of Breda]]. It is considered one of the best of Velázquez's paintings.]]
Velázquez returned to Madrid in January 1631.<ref name="Sánchez_Grove"/> That year he completed the first of his many portraits of the young prince, beginning with ''[[Prince Balthasar Charles with a Dwarf]]'' (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts).<ref>Asturias and Bardi 1969, p. 93.</ref> ln portraits such as ''[[Equestrian portrait of prince Balthasar Charles]]'' (1635), Velázquez depicts the prince looking dignified and lordly, or in the dress of a field marshal on his prancing steed. In one version, the scene is in the [[riding school]] of the palace, the king and queen looking on from a balcony, while [[Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares|Olivares]] attends as master of the horse to the prince.<ref>Carr et al. 2006, p. 182.</ref>

To decorate the king's new palace, the [[Palacio del Buen Retiro]], Velázquez painted equestrian portraits of the royal family.<ref name="Sánchez_Grove"/> In ''Philip{{nbsp}}IV on Horseback'' (1634–35), the king is represented in profile in an image of imperturbable majesty, demonstrating expert horsemanship by executing an effortless [[levade]].<ref name="Carr_38"/> The large ''[[The Surrender of Breda]]'' (1634–35), also painted for the Palacio, is Velázquez's only extant painting depicting contemporary history.<ref name="Carr_38">Carr et al. 2006, p. 38.</ref> Its symbolic treatment of a Spanish military victory over the Dutch eschews the rhetoric of conquest and superiority that is typical in such scenes, in which a general on horseback looks down on his vanquished, kneeling opponent. Instead, Velázquez shows the Spanish general standing before his Dutch counterpart as an equal, and extending to him a hand of consolation.<ref>Carr et al. 2006, pp. 38–41.</ref>

The impassive, saturnine face of the influential minister Olivares is familiar to us from the many portraits painted by Velázquez. Two are notable: one is full-length, stately and dignified, in which he wears the green cross of the [[order of Alcantara]] and holds a wand, the badge of his office as master of the horse; in the other, ''The Count-Duke of Olivares on Horseback'' ({{circa|1635}}), he is flatteringly represented as a field marshal during action. In these portraits, Velázquez well repaid the debt of gratitude that he owed to the patron who had first brought him to the king's attention.<ref>Carr et al. 2006, pp. 164, 180.</ref>

The sculptor [[Juan Martínez Montañés]] modeled a statue on one of Velázquez's equestrian portraits of the king (painted in 1636; now lost) which was cast in bronze by the [[Florence|Florentine]] sculptor [[Pietro Tacca]] and now stands in the [[Plaza de Oriente]] in Madrid.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Juan Martínez Montañés}}</ref> Velázquez was in close attendance to Philip, and accompanied him to [[Aragon]] in 1644, where the artist painted a portrait of the monarch in the costume as he reviewed his troops in [[Fraga]].<ref>Carr et al. 2006, p. 20.</ref>

Velázquez's paintings of ''Aesop'' and ''Menippus'' (both {{circa|1636–1638}}) portray ancient writers in the guise of portraits of beggars.<ref name="Sánchez_Grove"/> ''[[Mars Resting]]'' ({{circa|1638}}) is both a depiction of a mythological figure and a portrait of a weary-looking, middle-aged man posing as Mars.<ref>Portús 2004, p. 25.</ref> The model is painted with attention to his individuality, while his unkempt, oversized mustache is a faintly comic incongruity.<ref>Carr et al. 2006, p. 212.</ref> The equivocal image has been interpreted in various ways: Javier Portús describes it as a "reflection on reality, representation, and the artistic vision", while [[Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez]] says it "has also been seen as a melancholy meditation on the arms of Spain in decline".<ref name="Sánchez_Grove"/>

Had it not been for his royal appointment,  which enabled Velázquez to escape the censorship of the [[Spanish Inquisition|Inquisition]], he would not have been able to release his ''La Venus del espejo'' ({{circa|1644–1648}}, English: ''[[Rokeby Venus|Venus at her Mirror]]'') also known as ''The Rokeby Venus''. It is the first known female [[nude]] painted by a Spanish artist,<ref name="Sánchez_Grove">Sánchez, Alfonso E. Pérez (1 January 2003). "Velázquez, Diego". Grove Art Online.</ref> and the only surviving female nude by Velázquez.

====Portraiture====
[[File:Diego Velázquez - Portrait of a Lady - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|''Lady from court'', {{circa|1635}}]]
[[File:Pablo de Valladolid, por Diego Velázquez.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid]]'', 1635, a court fool of [[Philip IV of Spain|Philip IV]]]]
Besides the many portraits of Philip by Velázquez—thirty-four by one count<ref>Ortega y Gasset 1953, p. 45.</ref>—he painted portraits of other members of the royal family: Philip's first wife, [[Elisabeth of Bourbon]], and her children, especially her eldest son, Don [[Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias|Baltasar Carlos]], whom Velázquez first depicted at about two years of age. Cavaliers, soldiers, churchmen, and the poet [[Francisco de Quevedo]] (now at [[Apsley House]]), sat for Velázquez.

Velázquez also painted several buffoons and dwarfs in Philip's court, whom he depicted sympathetically and with respect for their individuality, as in ''[[The Jester Don Diego de Acedo]]'' (1644), whose intelligent face and huge folio with ink-bottle and pen by his side show him to be a wise and well-educated man.<ref>Carr et al. 2006, p. 42.</ref> ''Pablo de Valladolid'' (1635), a buffoon evidently acting a part, and ''The Buffoon of Coria'' (1639) belong to this middle period.

As court painter, Velázquez had fewer commissions for religious works than any of his contemporaries.<ref name="Carr_36"/> ''[[Christ Crucified (Velázquez)|Christ Crucified]]'' (1632), painted for the Convent of San Plácido in Madrid, depicts Christ immediately after death. The Savior's head hangs on his breast and a mass of dark tangled hair conceals part of the face, visually reinforcing the idea of death.<ref name="Carr_36">Carr et al. 2006, p. 36.</ref> The figure is presented alone before a dark background.

Velázquez's son-in-law [[Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo]] had succeeded him as usher in 1634,<ref>Asturias and Bardi 1969, p. 84.</ref> and Mazo himself had received a steady promotion in the royal household. Mazo received a pension of 500 [[Ducado|ducats]] in 1640, increased to 700 in 1648, for portraits painted and to be painted, and was appointed inspector of works in the palace in 1647.

Philip now entrusted Velázquez with the mission of procuring paintings and sculpture for the royal collection. Rich in pictures, Spain was weak in statuary, and Velázquez was commissioned once again to proceed to Italy to make purchases.<ref>Harris 1982,  pp. 24–25.</ref>

===Second visit to Italy===
[[File:Retrato del Papa Inocencio X. Roma, by Diego Velázquez.jpg|thumb|upright|left|''[[Portrait of Pope Innocent X]]'', 1650]]
When he set out in 1649, he was accompanied by his assistant [[Juan de Pareja]] who at this point in time was a slave and who had been trained in painting by Velázquez.<ref>Harris 1982,  pp. 25, 27, 87.</ref> Velázquez sailed from [[Málaga]], landed at [[Genoa]], and proceeded from Milan to Venice, buying paintings of [[Titian]], [[Tintoretto]] and [[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]] as he went.<ref>Harris 1982,  pp. 25, 28.</ref> At [[Modena]] he was received with much favor by the duke, and here he painted the portrait of the duke at the Modena gallery and two portraits that now adorn the [[Dresden]] gallery, for these paintings came from the Modena sale of 1746.

Those works presage the advent of the painter's third and latest manner, a noble example of which is the great portrait of [[Pope Innocent X]] in the [[Doria Pamphilj Gallery]] in Rome, where Velázquez now proceeded. There he was received with marked favor by the Pope, who presented him with a medal and golden chain. Velázquez took a copy of the portrait—which Sir [[Joshua Reynolds]] thought was the finest picture in Rome—with him to Spain. Several copies of it exist in different galleries, some of them possibly studies for the original or replicas painted for Philip. Velázquez, in this work, had now reached the ''manera abreviada'', a term coined by contemporary Spaniards for this bolder, sharper style. The portrait shows such ruthlessness in Innocent's expression that some in the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] feared that it would be seen unfavorably by the Pope; in fact Innocent was pleased with the work, and hung it in his official visitor's waiting room.{{cn|date=July 2022}}

[[File:Retrato de Juan Pareja, by Diego Velázquez.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Portrait of Juan de Pareja]]'' ({{circa|1650}})]]
In 1650 in Rome Velázquez also painted a ''[[portrait of Juan de Pareja]]'', now in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York City, US. This portrait procured his election into the [[Accademia di San Luca]]. Purportedly Velázquez created this portrait as a warm-up of his skills before his portrait of the Pope. It captures in great detail Pareja's countenance and his somewhat worn and patched clothing with an economic use of brushwork. In November 1650, Juan de Pareja was freed from slavery by Velázquez.<ref>The manumission document was discovered by [[Jennifer Montagu]]. See ''Burlington Magazine'', volume 125, 1983, pp. 683–4.</ref>

To this period also belong two small landscape paintings both titled ''[[View of the Garden of the Villa Medici]]''. As landscapes apparently painted directly from nature, they were exceptional for their time, and reveal Velázquez's close study of light at different times of day.<ref>Harris 1982, pp. 141–143; Ortega y Gasset 1953, p. 38.</ref>

As part of his mission to procure decorations for the ''Room of Mirrors'' at the [[Royal Alcazar of Madrid]], Velázquez commissioned [[Matteo Bonuccelli]] to cast twelve bronze copies of the [[Medici lions]]. The copies are now in the [[Royal Palace of Madrid]] and the [[Museo del Prado]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line/galeria-on-line/obra/leon/|title=León – Colección – Museo Nacional del Prado|website=www.museodelprado.es}}</ref>

During his time in Rome, Velázquez fathered a natural son, Antonio, whom he is not known ever to have seen.<ref name="Carr_247">Carr et al. 2006, p. 247.</ref>