VELAZQUEZ: THE TECHNIQUE OF GENIUS

Great painters are invariably great technicians. In creating the techniques he needed to express his ideas, Velázquez became one of the most original practitioners of the art of painting ever known. In this richly illustrated book, two widely recognized specialists on Velázquez, one an art historian, the other a conservation scientist, combine their expertise to show exactly how Spain’s most famous painter realized his artistic vision. The book begins with an introduction to Velázquez''s life and the technical means he employed, including pigments, canvases, and binding media. In a fascinating analysis of thirty works by Velázquez that span his entire career, the authors then examine how the artist devised the techniques to express his ideas and how these changed over time. More than two hundred photographs of details of Velázquez’s paintings vividly demonstrate how the artist realized his vision of man and nature through a highly allusive, economical manner of painting. This pathbreaking exploration of Velázquez’s technical achievement reveals as never before the miracle of the creative process of one of the world’s great masters. Jonathan Brown is Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Fine Arts at New York University. He is the author of many books on Spanish art, including The Golden Age of Painting in Spain, Velázquez: Painter and Courtier, and, with John Elliott, Palace for a King, all published by Yale University Press. Carmen Garrido is head of technical services at the Prado Museum in Madrid.