This book explores Velazquez's almost universal popularity. Accompanying a major exhibition at the National Gallery, London, it contextualises the artist's work and discusses his influence. Manet famously called him 'the painter's painter', and this book seeks to explain how, and why, his painterly, elegant compositions resonate so strongly with our Post-Impressionist sensibilities.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y VeldZquez (1599-1660) was born in Seville, Spain, the oldest of six children.He has come to be recognised as one of the very greatest painters, with an extraordinary ability to observe and record visual experience, whether rendering genre paintings,history scenes or portraits.

Velazquez's career can be characterised as a lifelong examination of the relationship of painting to nature, in which brushwork takes a leading role. As he developed,he realised ever-greater physical and psychological naturalism with progressively more pronounced and elegant brushstrokes, attaining miraculous effects of illusion with an astounding, abbreviated technique based on the implication rather than the elaboration of detail.

This book explores Velazquez's almost universal popularity. Accompanying a major exhibition at the National Gallery, London, it contextualises the artist's work and discusses his influence. Manet famously called him 'the painter's painter', and this book seeks to explain how, and why, his painterly, elegant compositions resonate so strongly with our Post-Impressionist sensibilities.

Written by world-class Velazquez scholars, the book surveys the artist's entire career, from his studies in Seville and Italy to his final great works at the court of Philip IV. It includes a full catalogue and chronology.

SPONSOR'S FOREWORD

DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD

Appearance and Reality in the Spain of Velazquez

JOHN H. ELLIOTT

Painting and Reality: The Art and Life of Velazquez

DAWSON W, CARR

Nudes and Knights: A Context for Venus

JAVIER PORTUS

Velazquez's Painting Technique

LARRY KEITH

Velazquez and Britain

XAVIER BRAY

Catalogue

 Velazquez in Seville

 At Court and in Italy: Painter of Faith and Myth

 Portraying the Court

 Velazquez and the Hunt

 Portraying the Ancients

 Portraying Two Courts:

The Return to Italy and the Final Years in Madrid

FAMILY TREES

CHRONOLOGY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

LIST OF LENDERS

PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS