The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-11-14
From a Painting by velasquez.)

supreme realist, as a master of quiet
dramatic art, as the greatest painter Of
atmosphere. He is a supreme realist be-
cause, tempered by his surroundings, he
sloughed off all that was vulgar in his
earliest studies and gives us perfect
transcripts of the natural man. He is
great as a dramatist because he poses his
figures perfectly as if for stage rehearsal
and is able to give elan without mo-
ton, the perfection of repressed vtgor
without trace of the drama of emotion.
And, finally, modern artists worship him
as well nigh the greatest of old masters
and the earliest of moderns most Of all
because of his technical supremacy and
mastery of atmospheric effects He is un-
equaled in giving soldity and planes TO
his figures and in placing them in an at
mosphere palpitating with reality in diff
Terminating between absorbing and re-
flecting surfaces and in reproducing the
exact values even in the most elaborate
interiors. Artists appreciate the difficulty
CT even approaching such perfection from
afar, and even the uninitiated are gripped
hard, without knowing why, by the ma
terial artistic truthfulness that the
technique expresses.
Velasquez made few preliminary
sketches, as was customary with most
artists. He planned and studied but
final work. He appears TO have posed or
grouped his figures in tableau and then
to have transferred them to canvas with
the greatest realism even in such elabo-
rate scenes as THE Tapestry Weavers'
and the Maids of Honor" including the
reproduction of the atmospheric medium.
The results that he reached were at
tanned not of set purpose, for he had no
ideals, but through a constant preoccupa-
a. Nv Iii;
cate sense of color. For many years there
was not even sign of his later mastery
of planes and of light. 1t was an uncon-
scious growth. In fact, there is nothing
in the work of the first fifteen years of
his career as a painter to indicate great
ness This slowneSs WIS natural in him
it would nave been otherwise had he been
an Illuminated genius Not before the
humor and maSterly expression in the
"Topers, painted in 1929, just before his
first Italian trip, could a great career be
even suspected Tor him All his fine work
was done after the age of 80.
Relying on tIis own eyesight rather than
on traditions, methods or schools, Velas-
quez does not reflect strongly the infiu-
enee of ar1y artist. What we do find never
blurs tie masters own personality. No
man Vas less a mannerlst, and II it is
natural TO separate his work into periods
ID ms juvenile production al Seville; %
hia early court work at Madrid; % the
'5eriod after his first Italian trip, and a.
the period after his second Italian trip
it is also true that the changes are due
not to the adoption of new methods but
to the rational development of the artist.
His increasing perfection of technique
simply enabled him TO attempt new effects
and any sameneSs, even at any one
period in his career, was avoided by his
extreme openness to all shades OF natural
Impressions which led him to adapt mis-
means to his ends with endless variety.
Perhaps one of the most interesting OF
his changes was from reproducer OF de-
tailed TO one of general values. from copy
ing the design on royal gown and the
rouge on royal cheek to giving the diff
ferences between rejecting and absorb
ing shadows, or suggesting the effects OF
debauchery in the flabbiness of the flesh
tones. OF course at times there is an
evident difference in the quality of his
brushwork, especially in some of his mid
die and later portraits, but this is easily
applicable In that, for instance, OF
"Pulido Pareja' we know that the coarser
and holder touch was caused simply by
the use of longer brushes in order that
the painter could stand away from his
canvas while painting If there is a
sionistic preoccupatton in so much OF
Titian's later work we may be sure that
In Velasouez it was the result of the
masters own striving for objective truth
fulness.
The range of subjects treated by We
lasauez is most interesting and charac-
teristic. Biblical subjects interested him
hardly at ALL The "Joseph's Coat of his
first Italian trip was his only incurslon
into the Old Testament field. The New
Testament subjects he treated '-ery sell
dom and almost entirely during his ear
lest years, while still in Sevine-as in
his "St. John in the Desert" his 'Adora.
ton of the Kings in Madrid, his "Ador-
alton of the Shepherds" in London. SC
like a Ribera, his Christ at the Col
umn." so Italian in feeling, and his
Christ on the Cross" in Madrid; these
latter were the fruit of Italy's influence
His very early Immaculate Conceptton
and his late Coronation Of the Virgin
were the only concessions he made to the
prevalent cult of the Virgin las latest