Velazquez: Painter and Courtier

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One of the best Velazquez books.......2005-12-28

This is one of the best book on Velazquez. Velazquez a prototypical "painter's painter", was a master at "achieving more with less". This large format book depicts virtually every work that is currently attributed to the artist. So, for practical purposes, it serves as a Velazquez catalogue raisonne. Large, very clear color and B&W photos allow you to get a very good feel for the way Velazquez constucted his paintings. Emile Carolus-Duran (Sargent's teacher) urged his students "study Velazquez without respite". This is an exceptional book from which to study!

Velazquez .......2003-09-21

This is the best book I have yet seen on Velazquez. Informative and lushly illustrated: its got the pictures AND the thousand words (and more). As a painter myself I use this book almost like a holy book; for guidance, inspiration and refreshment of the spirit.

Best place to start, or continue study.......2000-07-28

Having never read a book on Velazquez, I took a suggestion from one of my teachers and picked this one up at the library (art books are too expensive!). Being a fine arts/art history student, this was like discovering gold. The book is very well-written. I was able to travel the halls of the Spanish court with ease, because of the lucid, conversational style of writing. Brown doesn't mince words, and his inclusion of 17th century Spanish history is done where it needs to be. Everything in the book is there to inform the reader about Velazquez, whether it's his life, technique, or those around him. Most interesting is how the mood and frivolities of court greatly affected Velazquez's output. Brown states in his introduction that the book is for both the casual reader, and the scholar. After reading the book, this is very true. Scholars would do well to read this book, as Brown offers highly educated opinions and conclusions on Velazquez's style of painting, and the internal and external reasons around the artist that made him paint the way he did, both in quality and quantity. If you can afford this, buy it by all means. It offers the student a great grounding from which to explore Velazquez's paintings, and the techniques seen therein.

To know Velazquez.......2000-05-02

Very interesting book with a good analysis of painter and his paintings.

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Love it!
A thoughtful read
NOT an "Uncle Tom"
Truth is beauty. Beauty, truth.
A Beautifully Written and Inspiring Story

I, Juan de Pareja (Sunburst Book)
Elizabeth Borton De Trevino
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374435251

Book Description

Told through the eyes of Velasquez's slave and assistant, this vibrant novel depicts both the beauty and the cruelty of 17th century Spain and tells the story of Juan, who was born a slave and died a respected artist.

Customer Reviews:

Love it!.......2007-03-15

Hi, I'm 8 years old and I just read I, Juan de Pareja with my mom. He's a Spanish slave who loves his owners. One of the reasons he loves his owners is they don't whip him and be mean, like some of the other characters in the story. There are no pictures in this book but if you go on the Internet you can look up the paintings in this book. One of the paintings is of Juan and the real thing is in New York City. I think that any kid should read this book including both of their parents, so this would be a great book to read anytime, in the morning, at night, in the car, anywhere. It's pretty long, but I love it. I'm going to do a report on Spain. I think this book inspired me to do that.

A thoughtful read.......2007-03-14

I just finished reading this novel to my children. The prose is beautiful and my children are too young to appreciate sentence structure and word usage, but not too young to hang on every lovely phrase, even when not quite knowing what it means. This was a gentle introduction to the world of slavery. Children in the U.S. often think of it as just a part of our history and not part of the history of the world (in this case, Spain) which continues to this day in many parts of the globe. It is good for them to know that respect for human freedom is something that people have been fighting for many years before our civil war (in this case the mid-17th century).

As for the critics who needed more action, good literature is not a comic book. There are some stories which unfold on dark, velvety canvases like Velazquez, subtle and rich. Others complain that Juan didn't seem to mind being a slave..where was the outrage? Toward the end of the book another slave provides a contrast in attitude, and throughout the book it is clear that Juan is strangely at peace with his life as a servant. In my daughter's opinion, Juan felt loved and his masters were kind and never whipped him like you usually hear. He enjoyed his work and it was in his persona to be content and not dwell on the negative-the fictionalized character of Juan de Pareja is one we came to care for.

In addition, this was a great choice for art appreciation. After reading the book, we looked at works by Velazquez and by Juan de Pareja on the internet and instead of being old works by Spanish masters, it was like meeting old friends.

NOT an "Uncle Tom".......2006-12-22

One reason the story is so powerful is because it is NOT an adrenaline-packed full-bodied cry against social injustice. It's a quiet, beautiful story, and these very qualities highlight why slavery was such an insidious institution.

Some reviewers claim the book is slow. They are right, but let's examine the slowness in a little more detail. First of all, the book is intended to be a realistic look at a fictional person (not a biography as reviews state), which forced the author to cut back on the "page-turner" syndrome we're affected with today. (I'm going to sound preachy here, but most people don't lead perilous lives!! We aren't secretly spies, we don't get lost on islands populated by enigmatic others, and we don't become pop stars on American Idol.)

The book lacks whips, and bloodhounds, and chases across Southern swamps in the moonlight with a baby strapped to the hero's back.

But that doesn't make the book any less of a voice against slavery.

The sheer genius of the book is that it shows why slavery was an accepted part of life, and also shows why slavery is wrong. Juanico (he's referred to by a child's name for almost the entire book) is well-fed, he's loved, he's taken care of. He's a model slave leading a perfect life of servitude. At the time people would point to slaves like Juanico and say slavery clearly wasn't evil because Juan was well-treated.

As privileged readers, however, we know Juan doesn't like his permanent childlike state. He wants to paint. He wants it bad enough to steal from a man who has served as his father figure. Bad enough to risk death.

That's what slavery is all about -- limiting someone's life based on the color of their skin. By showing us Juan's pain Tervino shows that even the mildest form of slavery is wrong.

Juan writes his memoir after Vasquez's death, but (if memory serves) we never know precisely how long after the death. Personally I think the death is recent, and Juan is still processing the injustice of what happened to him. Without modern therapy to help him touch his inner rage he might never rail against Diego Velasquez, who he loved.

Other reviewers don't like how Velasquez "forgot" to free Juan. To me that is one of the most realistic parts of the book. Velasquez saw Juanico as a child, as a slave, for almost the entire book. He never frees Juan because he doesn't see Juan as a man and an equal. This mindset lasts right up to the point when he sees Juan's paintings. At that moment their relationship shifts. Diego suddenly sees Juan as an equal, and in that moment he frees Juan.

Several reviewers also seem to want some retribution; a better, more climatic ending. I personally like the ending because it's realistic. Juan comes to terms with what life has dealt him, maintaining the quiet dignity that makes him such a strong character.

Truth is beauty. Beauty, truth........2005-09-12

How far we have come. How much farther we have to go. As with most Newbery award winning children's books published before the year 1990, I approached "I, Juan de Pareja" with mounting trepidation. Originally published in 1965, the book is a fictionalized story of the real-life relationship between the great Spanish painter Diego Velazquez and his slave, Juan de Pareja. Potential pitfalls abound in such a set-up. The great danger of books like this one is that it can possibly trivialize the notion of slavery itself. When you write a slave-master buddy book like this one, it's all too easy to make them appear like equals, glossing over the inherent horror of one man owning another. As an author, Elizabeth Barton de Trevino does this quite a bit. Juan's sole objection to slavery is the fact that it means he cannot legally paint. We can suspect that the real Senor Pareja felt a tad differently. Just the same, the book is a warm interesting historical novel that will educate a great many kids on painting, the great painters of the past, and Juan de Pareja's role.

Born a slave and owned by the aunt of painter Diego Velazquez, Juan narrates the story of his life to us. Dona Emilia teaches Juan to read and write, eventually dying and leaving him to her nephew after her death. Traveling to Velazquez's home becomes an enormous ordeal, however, when Juan finds himself at the cruel mercy of a sadistic gypsy and is nearly killed in the move. All the more reason he should appreciate his new master, a taciturn man of little words but great compassion. Juan's duties become primarily based on stretching canvasses for his master, grinding paints, and setting up studio settings. Over the years, the slave yearns to paint his own portraits, but is stopped by a Spanish law forbidding slaves from participating in the arts. This does not stop our hero, however, and he proceeds to paint in secret for years on end. Only when he confesses in a surprisingly public way does Juan receive far more than the mere permission to put paint to canvass.

Trevino tells her story lightly and with great spirit. Little adventures spring up on each and every page, keeping the action going with what appears to be little effort. She is equally adept at almost all the characters' personalities as well. Velazquez is aloof but compassionate and a man of few words. His daughter Paquita is willful but has enough charm in her to get what she wants at all times. Only Juan de Pareja seems a half-completed portrait. He cries constantly, weeping at everything from the death of his first mistress to a viewing of Michelangelo's Pieta to receiving his own freedom. When he says that "I have always been quick to tears", this is understatement at its finest. You wonder if there is ever a time when he is not sobbing into his wine. Other problems with Juan's character continue. When he receives his freedom we are supposed to believe (as Trevino says in an Afterword at the end) that Pareja and Velazquez, "continued as companions in their maturity and ended as equals and as friends". Equals where one calls the other "master" to the end of his days? Trevino has made the awful mistake of having Pareja be so docile and undemanding that slavery is not a burden to him. He's never mad at the institution, all the more maddening when you see his future wife begin her story by being angry at slavery and end as stupefied as her husband. What on earth does Trevino gain if she creates a character who worships his enslaver long past the point of understanding? I was also a little surprised by how little of this story concentrated on Velazquez's undoubtedly most famous portrait, "Las Meninas". The picture appears for exactly two pages, and that is all. A very odd choice on the author's part.

None of this is to say that the book doesn't make for a good read. It's simply very difficult to wholeheartedly love a book in which a slave acts more than a bit of an Uncle Tom for most of its pages. Certainly Trevino does not condone slavery. She just has a hard time understanding that if a white man frees a black man and the black man continues to cow-tow to the white man, that is not equality. That is a slavery of the mind. Had Velazquez once done something nice for Pareja post-freedom or even paid him for his past services, the book would be redeemed. Instead, he makes a somewhat lame excuse about meaning to have freed Juan years ago (it just slipped his mind, silly man!) then feels a saint for having done it at all. ARG! The reason I even read this book is that I am leading a book group of six 8-12 year-olds and I needed to know the story. I'm looking forward to hearing the kids' reactions to it. Was it horrendously boring for them? What did they like about it? Would they recommend it to friends? Whatever the case, "I, Juan de Pareja" has some interesting passages and a great story that is mired down by the ignorance of its author. I would still recommend that kids read it, but I would be very careful to point out its flaws and stupidities to them as well. Good but with many reservations.

A Beautifully Written and Inspiring Story.......2005-02-25

..."I am working, Juanico," was his answer. "Working, by looking." I did not understand and so I held my tongue, thinking that this was what he meant me to do with his cryptic answer. But a week or more later, he spoke to me as if I had put my question but a moment before, answering, "When I sit and look at something I am feeling its shape, so that I shall have it in my fingers when I start to draw the outline. I am analyzing the colors, too. For example, do you see that piece of brocade on the chair? What color is it? "Blue," I answered promptly. "No, Juanico. There is a faint underlay of blue, but there is violet in that blue, the faintest touch of rose, and the highlights are red and bright green. Look again." It was magical, for suddenly I could see them, the other colors, just as he said. "The eye is complicated. It mixes the colors for you," explained Master. "The painter must unmix them and lay them on again shade by shade, and then the eye of the beholder takes over and mixes them again." "I should like to paint!" I cried out in my joy at this revelation...This is the book my 3rd and 4th grade students are reading. It is an inspiring story about relationships. Truth and fiction are intertwined...Velazquez is a famous Spanish painter, Juan de Pareja was a slave Velazquez inherited from his aunt's estate. The reader is taken on a profound journey through the 17th century, and introduced to many colorful and intriguing characters--characters who are very real in their familiar human qualities. The story is beautifully and vividly written. You can't help but come to love, appreciate, and admire Juan de Pareja and Diego Velazquez. Every sentence is full of rich language taking you step by step down a path of adventure and discovery. The inspiration from this book has brought forth "oooh's" and "aaah's" as we look forward to viewing the paintings by Velazquez and Rubens at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Velazquez: Museo del Prado 23 enero/31 marzo 1990

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Velazquez: Museo del Prado 23 enero/31 marzo 1990
Antonio Dominguez Ortiz
Manufacturer: Ministerio de Cultura
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Diego Velazquez and his times
Karl Justi
Manufacturer: J.B. Lippincott Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00087AXTI

Diego Velazquez: 1599-1660, The Face of Spain (Basic Art)

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Diego Velazquez: 1599-1660, The Face of Spain (Basic Art)
Norbert Wolf
Manufacturer: Taschen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3822863246

Diego Velazquez (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)

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Diego Velazquez (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)

Manufacturer: Children's Press (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0516269801

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Velazquez (Rizzoli Art Classics)

Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0847828123
Release Date: 2006-03-28

Book Description

The Rizzoli Art Classics series brings you Piero della Francesca, Titian, Caravaggio, and Velázquez, all in beautifully illustrated monographs, offering high-quality reproductions in compact, accessible volumes. These books feature a literary introduction by a renowned art historian, a thoroughly researched essay, and captions describing the artist's most famous canvases. A useful appendix section includes an extensive chronology of the artist's life and important historical events of his time; a compilation of writings by well-known historians, insight into each painter's stylistic development; a geographical table detailing the location of each painting in the book; and a concise bibliography with suggested further readings.With authoritative text by leading art historians, these lavishly illustrated editions provide fresh insight into the art and lives of some of the most fascinating artists in the history of painting.

Historia De Una Escalera Las Meninas (Literatura)

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Historia De Una Escalera Las Meninas (Literatura)
Antonio Buero Vallejo
Manufacturer: Continental Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 8423918106

Velázquez, Los Borrachos, and Painting at the Court of Philip IV

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Orso's book helps bring new insight into Velazquez.

Velázquez, Los Borrachos, and Painting at the Court of Philip IV
Steven N. Orso
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521444527

Book Description

This book explains the origins of Los Borrachos ("The Drunkards"), a celebrated but bewildering mythological painting of international fame, created by Diego de Velázquez for Philip IV of Spain around 1628-29. By studying Velázquez's early years at court (1623-29) and the role that historians of his day assigned to Bacchus, the author reaches a dramatic new interpretation of the picture. There are many monographs devoted to Velázquez's entire life, but no book focuses on this painting or the artist's early career at court in such depth.

Customer Reviews:

Orso's book helps bring new insight into Velazquez........1997-08-03

This book, with its throrough description of mythology as it existed in Spain around Velazquez time, helped me identify the subject of some other paintings from that period not in the public domain. Viewed together with paintings by Velazquez, Rubens and Patinir, they show Bacchus' birth place in Spain, his journey through Andalusia and his visit with his mother Semele in Olympus. Together they show that Velazquez and Rubens painted a whole series on Bacchus in Iberia based on the story by Ovid, adding even more proof to Professor Orso's hypothesis that the Los Barrachos painting is based on mythology. This discovery could not have been made without Internet, Professor Orso, and Amazon Books. Thanks to you all

Velázquez's 'Las Meninas' (Masterpieces of Western Painting)

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Velázquez's 'Las Meninas' (Masterpieces of Western Painting)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521804884

Book Description

Velázquez's 1656 masterpiece Las Meninas has inspired an avalanche of published attention since it was first placed on public view in the Museo del Prado in 1819. The essays in this volume survey the responses to the painting in the nineteenth century, when Velázquez's fame outside Spain peaked. They include introductions to interpretations of Las Meninas by twentieth-century art historians, critics, philosophers, and art theorists, as well as the modern appropriation of the work by Picasso.

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