The painter as king

The first thing to be said is how good this exhibition looks upstairs in the main body of the National Gallery, hung in large, well-proportioned rooms, in natural light, rather than in the dungeons of the Sainsbury wing, where most temporary shows have been consigned in recent years. At last common sense has prevailed at the NG, and fabulous loan exhibitions may be seen in a favourable context. To have gathered together these 40 works by Velázquez — almost half his surviving output — is a remarkable achievement and not likely to be repeated during our lifetime. It is only right and proper that they are shown in the best setting. Such a rare event is to be savoured, which is why I find the comments of certain critics churlish when they complain that since Velázquez’s great masterpiece ‘Las Meninas’ is not among the exhibits, the display is irredeemably flawed. The Prado will not lend it, and that’s an end to the matter. Think positively: now you have a good excuse for a trip to Madrid….

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599–1660) is widely accepted as the greatest Spanish painter, and as one of the greatest artists of all time. Born in Seville, he was trained to paint religious subjects, but it was clear from early on that he was more interested in the singularity of the individual, and depicting people in a secular setting. His memorable ‘bodegones’, or genre pictures uniting still-life and figures, either in the kitchen or the tavern, were among the first of their kind in Spain, and remain highly celebrated. His exceptional skills at portraiture made him a perfect candidate for preferment at court, and in 1622 he made his first visit to Madrid, being appointed the King’s Painter the following year. The court of Philip IV was a splendid façade, masking a disintegrating empire, riven by power struggles and an uncertain succession.