The San Francisco call., 1899-11-07
VELASOUEZ.
pronounced Va-las-keth.)

cause of its dramatic color effects and its
occasional raturaIism. For the same rea-
son the dark and fantastic Neapoiltan
school, with Caravaggio and Ribera, was
a strong factor in guiding Spanish paint
ers.
Velasquez came at critical moment in
Spanish art. In other branches of civil
ization-those naturally the earliest to
develop IN any newly founded nation
Spain had long before assumed a we'll
defined character In religious matters,
in state policy, in administration, Spain,
during the sixteenth century, had worked
from clear-cut and inflexible ideals that
have stamped her in history. Over
large part of Europe as well as of the
New World she had extended the iron
grasp of these ideals, and now when her
power was waning she was calling TO her
aid the resources of painting to maintain
the hold of religion on the masses. Pa
checo. who was to be VelasqVez's s teacher
and fathar-in-law, was emhody1ng IN
standard "Cuide to Painters" the clerical
idea of the scope and duty of painting as
an educational medium in the grasp of the
church. But before Murillo was to raise
this tendency painting" into the realm
of pure beauty came Velasquez, who made
MurilIo possible. BY his genius he set
seal upon a national style that should
for the Hrst time give Spain in the field
of painting as high a place among ma
tions as she had already attained in other
fields. No wonder that when elasquez
came he received right royal welcome.
Don Diego de Silva Velasquez was born
at Seville in June, 1899 Though of noble
family. his parents allowed him to follow
his leaning for an artists life, and at Is
he entered the studio of the famous, fiery
Herrera. but soon passed to that of Pa
checo, where he spent five years in paint
ing genre subjects and in careful study
of physiognomy Pacheco so appreciated
his character and budding talents that he
gave him his daughter in marriage in
1918 The young painter was, in his teens,
a pure realist, delighting in tavern and
kitchen scenes and every variety of COM
mon life, as we can see from his Water
Carrier at Apsley Court and his ,''Adora-
ton of the Shepherds" in the National
Gallery Even his religious pictures had
then an obtrusive dominant element of
peasantry, which afterward disappeared.
In 1923 an eventfu change took place in
the artists life He was called to Madrid,
and by favor of the Prime Minister Oil
wares became, at the extraordinarily
youthful age of "a, portrait painter to
King Philip ", the royal family and the
court Velasquez must have shown great
social tact and ability not only to keep
throughout his life the favor so early OBJ
tained but steadily to increase it. The
royal palace at Madrid had become a SUI
perb picture gallery. where many of the
great masters of the sixteenth century
were magnificently represented, and by
study of these masterpieces Velasquez
broadened his knowledge, obtained new
insight into the possibilities of color and
acquired fexibility and confidence. He
was Weaned both from. Grass realism and
from the tendency school, and turned
to the study of the human personality.
For ten years after his coming to Ma
drid Velasquez appears to have confined
himself to arstocratic portraits, turning
away from his earlier themes of common
life as unsuited to the courtly atmosphere
Of Madrid. In 1928 the interesting episode
of Rubens visit to Madrid brought the
Spaniard for the first time into personal
contact with one of his great contempo-
raries 1t was at Rubens' suggestion that
Velasquez with the consent and financial
help of the King and of Olivares made
the important decision to visit Italy to
study the Italian masters at home At
Venice he studied and copied Tintoretto
and especially Titan, whom he regarded
as the greatest of all Italians. At Rome,
where he made far longer stay, he spent
most of his time at the Vatican, studying
and copying Raphael and Michelangelo.
but he also devoted himself to getting ac-
quainted with antique sculpture. Strange
as it may appear to us, he certainly also
imbibed a decided liking for that latest
phase of Italian painting. the Bolognese