Diego Velázquez Drawings

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iego Velázquez is one of the most brilliant painters in the whole history of painting. He was born in Seville in the last year of the 16th century, and called to the court in Madrid by order of the Duke of Olivares, when he was just 24 years old. By then, his genius was already apparent. After his appointment as Court Painter, he was to spend the rest of his days - 37 years - at court, alternating the duties of painter and palace official. He was attached to the palace variously as painter, gentleman of the bedchamber and finally, major-domo.

He was considered a genius from his youth. Marañón says of him: "What is miraculous about Velázquez is that in the face of the ecstatic admiration shown by all who beheld his paintings, he was able to preserve intact his technical excellence and artistic pride”. His wonderful production was the fruit both of his genius and of chance. What would have become of Velázquez had he not been called to court? It was an extraordinary stroke of fate which put him as a young man in a high place which others could only reach much later in life, and this period in the palace was when his greatest artistic creations were produced, ranging from his portraits of persons in the Court, and of Innocent X (then Papal Nuncio in Madrid), to his famous pictures The Lances (Las Lansas), The Tapestry Weavers (Las Hilanderas) and The Maids of Honour (Las Meninas).

On this the 4th centenary of his birth, we wish to commemorate the personality and work of this great painter, and to make them more accessible to a wider public, by publishing facsimile reproductions of several drawings: the Portrait of Cardinal Borja from the Gallery of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and the Bust of a Girl, the Head of a Girl, preliminary sketches for The Lances and the View of Granada, all from the National Library in Madrid.

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