Historical Example: Velázquez

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was born into a modest family in Seville in 1599. He was the eldest of eight siblings. Ortega y Gasset states, "Velázquez's life is one of the simplest lives that a man has ever lived."

There is little information about Velázquez's life, which from the beginning portrays him as an E9. It is not clear if he went unnoticed or if there were no important events in his life. Ortega y Gasset hypothesizes that only one significant event occurred in Velázquez's life: being appointed court painter to the King in 1623. "The rest of Velázquez's visible life is one of astonishing daily routine." This highlights the Sexual 9’s aversion to change.

Velázquez led a determined life starting at the age of 24, living in the palace in an unstimulating atmosphere where nothing of interest ever occurred. "The palace was an aseptic, sterilizing atmosphere."

His training began at the age of 10 in the workshop of Francisco Herrera el Viejo, a prestigious painter in Seville with a very bad character that Velázquez could not stand. At 13, he moved to study under Francisco Pacheco, who later became his father-in-law.

In his first contract with Pacheco, Velázquez assumed the duties of a servant in exchange for lessons and maintenance. Pacheco was a cultured, good-natured man who, five years later, married Velázquez to his teenage daughter, Juana de Miranda. "This woman will quietly accompany him all his life." With Juana, Velázquez would have two daughters.

In 1624, Felipe IV appointed him court painter and promised not to have his portrait painted by anyone else. This points to his Sexual 9 characteristics: docile, friendly, and trustworthy. Velázquez would remain attached to the palace until his death, becoming a faithful friend of the King.

Velázquez became part of other people’s plans for his life: first Pacheco’s, and later the King’s. He forgot his own existence in favor of the decisions made for him, choosing what they had chosen for him.

From his early works, there is a strict drawing style that attentively seeks to capture the exactness of reality, with severe plasticity. He was focused on mastering the natural imitation of his subjects.

Velázquez led a routine life in the palace, only interrupted by three key events: living with Rubens for eight months and making two trips to Italy, spaced twenty years apart. Velázquez’s vocation was twofold—artistic and noble—and both were satisfied from the start, which seemed to drown him in a state of monotony. "The consequence is that he was left empty of vital tension, like a battery that discharges its power." Why fight for a dream if it has already been fulfilled before being fully imagined?

Despite arousing envy among his contemporary colleagues, Velázquez did not expose himself to them and found solace in his friendship with the King. He tended to ignore attacks until a response was inevitable, at which point Velázquez would snap. "When envy gets too close and some response is inescapable, Velázquez lengthens his jaw and snaps back like a lion. His exits were known to be deadly."

Velázquez was taciturn, melancholic, withdrawn, and distant. Few friends are known to him, and those he did have were the usual ones. Little was said about him during his lifetime, despite being a social figure. "Velázquez is not the light under the bushel; however, nobody takes care of him."

After his travels to Italy, no one came to learn from him. Despite painting for the papal court, his fame did not spread. "Velázquez was not popular in his time. He didn’t receive good press."

Velázquez did not desire to be a painter—it was the result of a series of events. He did not see himself as a painter, but rather as a consequence of another's demands. His skill with a brush gave him the trade. He painted little, and many of his works were dismissed as unfinished. Even when he became part of the Military Order of Santiago, witnesses say he did not practice painting, which was not his way of living. His biography suggests that what he truly aspired to was fulfilling "the family mandate" of becoming a nobleman. It’s important to remember that Velázquez came from a family of noble emigrants who had fallen on hard times.

The current Prado Museum in Madrid is the result of Velázquez's efforts. He was sent by Felipe IV to acquire as many paintings as he could in Italy. He was treated by the King as a personal friend, and in Italy, he was received as such. "After finishing his portrait of Innocent

X, the Pope sent him, as a reward, a gold chain. With an unprecedented gesture, Velázquez returned it, signaling that he was not a painter, but a servant of his king."

The Art of Distance

The natural thing in Velázquez seems to be not to paint. He possesses what Ortega y Gasset calls "the art of distance: [...] his pictorial style is summed up in painting things by looking at them from afar."

As a young man, like many young painters of his time, he began painting still lifes. "Still life is painted triviality." Velázquez's era marks the end of an era of painting beauty. He made portraiture his primary form of painting. "Until the 17th century, portraiture was not considered painting in the strict sense. [...] The art of painting consisted in painting beauty."

Velázquez was a realist painter; he painted what existed—everyday objects. At the same time, he was an unrealistic painter, painting only what was necessary, what had a visual presence. This made his paintings ghostly and unfinished. "Velazqueño art is apathetic. In the painting, suddenly, a man or a woman or a pitcher ‘appears’ [...]. The important thing is that [...] the object is always ‘appearing,’ coming into existence."

Velázquez’s style makes him a painter with little affection or tenderness. He is distant and apathetic. "He doesn’t care about anything. [...] The only thing that attracts him is that things are there, that they arise, surprising us with a spectral air, in the mysterious realm, indifferent to good and evil, to beauty and ugliness—this is existence."

He painted very few religious works; in fact, he seemed to refuse them. Only three. One of these, after the death of his daughter, who died as a child, was "Christ Tied to the Column."

In Velázquez’s paintings, as Ortega y Gasset affirms, nothing disturbs. In front of them, "an unusual comfort is felt." Velázquez "photographs reality," capturing the moment, portraying the present moment.