The San Francisco call., 1899-11-07

of the Sports" of the royal palace, such
as dwarfs and buffOons, in whose pOr-
trayal VelasqUeZ could assume greater
liberty in attitude and expression and
greater realism than in his set aristocratic
portraits with their eMgencies of dress
and dignity.
In 1919 the painter took a second journey
to Italy, ostenSibly to buy for the King
pictures and casts from the antique, but
we may believe that he was driven to it
by his desire to gain the stimulus of fur
ther contact with the best Italian art.
There can be no better proof of the mas
ter S tremendous advance since his first
visit, when he painted the rather aca-
demic and weak Forge of vulcan than
a simple comparison of this picture with
the masterpiece of his second visit, the
portrait of Pope Innocent X now in the
Doria-Pamtili gallery, one of the most
wonderful of portraits and sufficient in it
self to immortalize its author. That this
was not "f1uke' is shown by the almost
equally living and forceful portrait of his
Morisco attendant and pupil, Pareja,
which he also did in Rome as prelimin-
ary to the papal portrait.
The last ten years of the painters life,
after his return to Madrid, must have
held strange admiXture of gratitlca-
ton and of disappointment, for he at
tanned 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 inces-
SAINT public calls upon him. AT his own
request he was appointed in 1862 palace
marshal to the King, in addition to his
leries His new duties included the or
ganization and direction of all court fetes
and pomps and of royal Journeys, the de-
signing and decorating of the royal pal
aces and even the supervision of the de
tails of court life such as the heating and
lighting of the household. Certainly all
this labor was not wasted, for it gave
Velasquez the opportunity to do for Spain
what Holbein had done for England in
the time of Henry VIII-the opportunity
TO direct the public taste in all branches
ind Icfr in for trar1
scending in popular effect the influence of
his own artistic work.
Velasquez could not have found during
these years the long spells for con-
tinuous work that his earlier life had al
lowed. Perhaps this partly accounts for
the freer and more Sketchy character of
impressionistic of all and those in which
he has come into possession of far
wider range of color effects. Aside from
his portraits many OF the hnest OF which
period of his life not by such lifeless pro-
ductions as the classic subjects required
by the taste of the time, to which his
realistic genius was unSuited, but by his
famous interiors, the maids of Honor
and "The Tapestry Workers." and prob
ably 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 siXty-second year by an
acute illness brought on by his labors as
court marshal In that capacity 1t be-
came his duty to superintend the arrange
ments for royal journey to the Spanish
frontier. The French and Spanish courts
after a prolonged struggle, had become
reconciled, and the reconciliation was to
be consecrated by the marriage of the
Infanta Maria Teresa to King Louis XIV.
The fatigue and responsibility involved
in managing so gigantic an undertaking
so sapped the masters strength that he
could not resist the ensuing ague, but
died on August 6, 1860 to the genuine grief
of King Philip " and the court.
Note-This paper will be concluded on
Tuesday November IA.