Diego de Velázquez

A master of 17th-century Spanish painting. Born in Seville and died in Madrid. His father was a Portuguese nobleman, and Velázquez was his mother's surname. He studied in his hometown in the workshop of Pacheco, a late Mannerist painter who would later become his father-in-law and author of "De Painting," and became a professional painter in 1617. On his second visit to Madrid in 1623, accompanied by his father-in-law, he was promoted to chief court painter for Philip IV (reigned 1621-65) with the help of his fellow countryman, the Prime Minister, Count Olivares. His gentle and sincere personality also earned him the king's strong trust, and he was also highly valued as a court official. The style of his time in Sevill was characterized by Caravaggio-esque chiaroscuro and naturalism, and by his figures that resembled wooden sculptures with strong volumes, contrasts of light and color, and a pursuit of the quality of objects. He painted kitchen scenes (bodegones) (such as ``An Old Woman and a Boy Cooking Eggs'' and ``A Water Seller of Seville''), portraits (such as ``Sister Jerónima de la Fuente''), and even religious paintings (such as ``The Adoration of the Magi''), demonstrating his outstanding technique in painting everyday, mundane subjects.

This tendency continued until his early Madrid masterpiece, The Triumph of Bacchus (The Drunkards) (1629), which has Seville peasants as its main characters, but through his contact with the vast royal collections, mainly Venetian and Netherlandish works, his friendship with Rubens, who visited Spain as a diplomat, and his first trip to Italy (1629-31) shortly thereafter, his colors became brighter and more transparent, and his brushwork became lighter and more sophisticated. There is a theory that two landscape paintings depicting the gardens of the Medici Villa in Rome were created during this first trip, and they even evoke Corot.

The 17 years leading up to his second trip to Italy (1649-51) were Velázquez's most productive period. He produced numerous masterpieces, including "The Sack of Breda (Lance)", "Statue of Charles IV on Mount", and "Statue of Prince Baltasar Charles on Mount", as well as portraits of royals in hunting attire and humanistic portrayals of dwarves and clowns who were kept at the court. In these works, the rigid forms of his Sevillian period were dissolved by the use of transparent colors that evoked a sense of light and air, and the subjects gained a greater visual truth.

Velázquez was a prolific artist, but because his work was not shown to the public, he was able to use each piece as a new experiment, surrounded by his own works. These technical innovations were perfected during his second trip to Italy and in the latter years of his life. His Pope Innocent X, painted in Rome in various shades of red, is one of the greatest European portraits. Furthermore, the masterpieces he painted after his return to the country, such as the series of Infanta Margaret, the group portrait masterpiece Las Meninas (The Maids of the Court), which is known as the Theological Summa, and Las Hilanderas (The Weavers), in which myth and reality blend together, demonstrate the perfection of the aerial perspective technique that began with the Venetians, that is, the perfection of the technique of depicting three-dimensional space and the objects that exist within it on canvas, just as our eyes see the shapes and colors of objects in different ways depending on the thickness of the air and the amount of light, and ultimately the perfection of the color division technique that was a precursor to Impressionism.

[Kanyoshi Keizo]

"World Art Collection 15: Velázquez" with commentary by Keizo Kamiyoshi (1976, Shueisha)" ▽ "Velázquez" by M. Serullas, translated by Yukiyama Gyoji and Yamanashi Toshio (1980, Bijutsu Shuppansha)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

17世紀スペイン絵画の巨匠。セビーリャに生まれ、マドリードで没した。父はポルトガル系の貴族で、ベラスケスは母の姓。生地で、のちに義父となる後期マニエリスムの画家で『絵画論』の著者パチェーコの工房に学び、1617年、職業画家となった。23年、義父同道の二度目のマドリード訪問で、同郷の宰相オリバレス伯公爵の助力もあって、一躍フェリペ4世（在位1621～65）の首席宮廷画家に登庸された。彼はまた、温和で誠実な性格ゆえに王の強い信頼を得て、宮廷役人としても重用された。セビーリャ時代の作風は、カラバッジョ風の明暗法と自然主義で、強固なボリュームの木彫のような人物像と、光や色彩のコントラスト、物の質の追求などを特徴とし、厨房画(ボデゴン)（『卵を料理する老婆と少年』『セビーリャの水売り』ほか）や肖像画（『修道女ヘロニマ・デ・ラ・フエンテ』ほか）、さらに宗教画（『東方三賢者の礼拝』ほか）を描き、日常的で卑近な主題に卓越した技法を発揮した。

　この傾向は、マドリード初期の傑作でセビーリャの農夫たちを主人公とした『バッカスの勝利（酔っぱらいたち）』（1629）まで続くが、ベネチア派とフランドル派を中心とする膨大な王家コレクションとの接触、外交官としてスペインを訪れたルーベンスとの親交、その直後の第1回イタリア旅行（1629～31）を通じ、色彩は明るさと透明度を増し、筆致も軽妙さを加えていった。ローマのメディチ家別荘の庭を描いた2枚の風景画を第1回旅行の際の作とする説があるが、それらはコローさえ想起させる。

　第2回イタリア旅行（1649～51）までの17年余は、ベラスケスのもっとも多産な時代であった。『ブレダの開城（槍(やり)）』『カルロス4世騎馬像』『皇太子バルタサール・カルロス騎馬像』をはじめ、王族の狩猟服姿の肖像や、宮廷で養われていた小人や道化をヒューマニスティックに描いた肖像など、数多くの傑作を描いた。これらの作品において、セビーリャ時代の固い造形は、光と空気を感じさせる透明な色彩のタッチによって溶解され、対象は視覚的な真実を増していった。

　ベラスケスは寡作家だが、作品が門外不出だったために、自分の作品に取り巻かれながら一作一作を新たな実験の場とすることができた。こうした技法上の革新は、第2回イタリア旅行とそれに続く晩年に完成した。ローマで描いたさまざまな赤の階調による『教皇インノケンティウス10世』は、ヨーロッパ肖像画の最高傑作の1枚である。さらに、帰国後に描いた傑作群、一連の『マルガリータ王女』、絵画の神学大全といわれる集団肖像画の傑作『ラス・メニーナス（宮廷の侍女たち）』、神話と現実が混然一体となった『ラス・イランデーラス（織女たち）』は、ベネチア派に始まった空気遠近法の完成、つまり、われわれの目が空気の厚さと光の量によって対象の形と色をさまざまに見るように、三次元空間とその中に存在する対象をカンバス上に描く技法の完成を、ひいては、印象派を先駆する色彩分割描法の完成を物語っている。

［神吉敬三］

『神吉敬三解説『世界美術全集15　ベラスケス』（1976・集英社）』▽『M・セリュラス著、雪山行二・山梨俊夫訳『ベラスケス』（1980・美術出版社）』

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