The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-07

nature. He paints not only portraits
but scenes of court life and amuse-
ments, such as boar hunts and stag
hunts, as well as elaborate historical
and religious scenes. The foremost of
his large compositions. the scene of the
Surrender of Breda,' the browning
exploit of the career of that great i'm
perialist general. Spinola, is judged by
some critics to be one of the greatest
historic paintings. AT about the same
time he produced one of his most per-
feet portraits. that of Admiral Pulido
Pareja," now in the national gallery.
chronological study of the portraits
that led up to this one is the best in
deX to his artistic progress. To about
this time belongs, in part at least, that
remarkable series of full-length por-
traits of the Sports" of the royal pal
ace, such as dwarfs and buffoons, in
whose portrayal Velasquez could as
sumo greater liberty in attitude and
expression and greater realism than in
his set aristocratic portraits with their
exigencies of dress and dignity.
In l649 the painter took a second Jour-
ney to Italy, ostensibly to buy for the
king pictures and casts from the an
tique, but we may believe that he was
driven TO it by his desire to gain the
stimulus of further contact with the
test Italian art. There can be no bet
ter proof of the masters tremendous
advance since his first visit, when he
painted the rather academic and weak
Forge of Vulcan" than a simple com
parison of this picture with the master
piece of his second visit. the portrait
of Pope Innocent X,'' now in the Do
ria-Pamfili gallery. one of the most
wonderful OF portraits and sufficient in
itself TO immortaliZe its author That
this was not "fuke" is shown by the
almost equally living and forceful por-
trait of his MoriSco attendant and pupil.
Pareja, which he also did in Rome as a
preliminary to the papal portrait
The last ten years of the painters
life after his return to Madrid, must
have held strange admixture of graft
tication and of disappointment, for he
attained to more public honors than he
could have had a right to expect, and
yet for this very reason his artists
soul was hindered in its expansion by
the incessant public calls upon him.
AT his own request he was appointed
in 1852 palace marshal to the king, in
addition to his other Office of director
of the royal galleries. His new duties
included the organization and direction
of all court feteS and pomps and of
royal journeys. the designing and
decorating of the royal palaces and
even the supervision of the details of
lighting Of the household. Certainly
all this labor was not wasted, for ii
gave VelasqueZ the opportunity to do
for Spain what Holbein had done for
in the time of Henry VIII
the opportunity to direct the public
taste in all branches of art and art
in a way far transcending in
popular effect the influence of his own
artistic work.
Velasquez could not have found dur
ing these years the long spells for con-
tinuouS work that his earlier life had
allowed Perhaps this partly accounts
for the freer and more sketchy charac- !
ter of his late works, the most effective |
and impressionistic of all and those in !
which he has come into possession of
a far wider range of color effects. Aside |
from his portraits. many of the finest |
OF which belong here. we should judge 4
Of this period of his life. not by such |
lifeless productions as the classic SUBJ !
jects required by the taste of the time, /
tc which his realistic genius was I'M
suited, but by his famous interiors. the
Maids of Honor and The Tapestry /
Workers" and probably by some of the /
group of serio-comic portraits of the
court testers and dwarfs.
In the prime of his artistic strength
and high in royal favor Velasquez was
struck down, in his end year. by an I
acute illness brought on by his labors
as court marshal. In that capacity it |
became his duty to superiptend the ar
for a royal journey to the
Spanish frontier. The French and J.
Spanish courts afte- prolonged =trug-