Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XI Scarcity of drawings by Velazquez--Collections where they are to be found-- Only two engravings by Velazquez are known, one an etching and the other engraved by the 'burin'--The character of Velazquez, inferred from official, in the absence of more intimate documents--His relations with his fellow artists-- Memorandum of the pictures taken to the Monastery of the Escurial by Diego Velazquez--History of this memorandum; different opinions upon it; it must be considered apocryphal--Velazquez's journey to the Pyrenees on the occasion of the marriage of the Infanta Maria Teresa de Austria with Louis xiv.--His return to Madrid--Illness of Velazquez--His death on August 6th, ]66'0, at the age of sixty-one--Death of his wife Juana Pacheco--The sequestration of the possessions of Velazquez and their complete restoration six years afterwards--The best known pupils of Velazquez; his influence on his contemporaries. EVERY biographer of Velazquez, even at the present day, meets with two inexplicable gaps which are obstacles to the complete knowledge of the man and the artist; the first is the almost entire disappearance of his correspondence, as mentioned in Chapter vi.; and the second the surprising rarity of drawings and sketches by his hand. How is this to be explained? Can Velazquez have executed his pictures without the help of preliminary studies, or even a sketch of the composition? I am inclined to believe it, for even whilst admitting the carelessness of the majority of those who possessed his drawings, it is hardly probable that almost all could have gone astray. In Spain it is only possible to regard as authentic the two somewhat unimportant sketches at Madrid, one in the National Library,1 and the other and better one in the...