Paintings by Diego Velázquez

Diego Velázquez, "painter of the King", had the vocation for painting since childhood. In Madrid he won the affection of Felipe IV, and worked almost exclusively for it, installed as a great Lord, and creating a wonderful series of portraits that made him famous. Two trips to Italy, in 1629 and 1649, put him in direct contact with the art of this country, especially with Venetian painting. Stately and self-confident, he developed his art according to an evolutionary curve which became a magnificent lesson in painting, and that goes from pure realism of its first activity, the aristocratic and elegant and, finally, deep realism of full maturity. In this virtual exhibition, in which the works are ordered chronologically, you can follow the evolution of his work.

Breakfast

To 1618
Canvas. 1.07 x 1.01
Museum of Hermitage, Petersburgo.

Diego Velázquez, as well as numerous courtiers characters, portraying left multiple scenes depicting local customs by ordinary people. In them it became clear his love for the people and his deeply human conception of life.

At the breakfast, preserved in the Hermitage Museum, the artist shows us two cheerful young women who, apparently, have been invited to an old man, a bum perhaps. The plot and characters recur often in the work of the painter.

Velázquez highlights the gesticulantes young, full of life and daring, whose attitude contrasts with the somewhat still and quiet old man that, while listening to the talk of youth, is showing signs of possessing great experience. The comparison between youth and old age is a delicately and tactfully.

Strong contrasts of light and shade masterfully organized the pictorial space. With great skill is used light to highlight faces, white tablecloth, the glass of wine, bread, plate with food and fruit. The artist pays attention to all the details. Each object is admirably drawn and the whole work conveys great realism.

San Juan Evangelista in the island of Patmos

To 1618
Canvas. 1.35 x 1.02
National Gallery, London.

Preserved in the National Gallery, this picture belonged to the convent of carmelitas walkways of Seville and painted until Velázquez moved to Madrid. In the box, St. John is sitting writing revelation, with its symbol, the Eagle, by his side. Look towards the vision of a winged female figure with a dragon, in the upper-left corner of the canvas. This night scene light emanates from the vision.

Velázquez uses the traditional format for the subject, but instead of showing us san Juan as an old man, as it was when he wrote the Apocalypse, painting the Holy as a young man. The face is particularized; It shows no idealization, and with the mustache is typically Spanish.

It is clear that Velazquez was working with a model, although the colors used in this painting are different from those who to serve in the Sevillian stage. The strong contrast between light and dark recalls the style of El Greco was visionary events.

The adoration of the Magi

1619
Canvas. 2.03 x 1.25
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Velázquez, of tenebrism stricter caravaggista Seville stage, found in the Prado Museum some portrait and this superb Adoration of the Magi, dated in 1619 in full youth of the author, translating very well the bright concerns and prieto and almost sculptural realism in his early years modeling.

The range of color, brown tones, with thick shadows and bright strokes of great intensity; Twilight landscape, low tones with true bassanesco memory, and so individual and concrete faces, portraits no doubt, look beautifully define your first style.

In the delicate, but real and immediate face of the Virgin, and the delightful child, so truly infant Jesus, must see, as he has been said repeatedly, a loving tribute to his wife and his son, born the same year.

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha

Toward 1620
Canvas. 0.60 x 1.03
National Gallery, London.

This picture belongs to the Sevillian time of Velázquez, before moving to Madrid. Scenes in which there are still-lifes or kitchens and taverns were very popular in Seville. Earthy colors and dense brush strokes which describe the texture of objects and the tanned skin of the villagers are typical of this velazquena stage.

Velázquez plasma beautifully shiny wet flakes of the fish and the strength and the metallic character of the mortar. The influence of Caravaggio is large, both in theme and in the treatment, but the still life and the characters in the foreground and a second view in the background, with religious characters, come from the Flemish painters, particularly of Pieter Aertsen, who worked in Seville.

The background scene is taken from Luke and is intended as a picture within the picture or, perhaps, as a reflection in a mirror, but it is more likely that it is a scene that takes place in an adjoining room, seen through an opening in the wall. It is difficult also to decide what relationship exists between that scene and figures in the foreground, the old lady and the Cook. Perhaps it was intended to establish some type of moral relationship.

Philip IV

To 1626
Canvas. 2.01 x 1.02
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

This portrait of the young King Felipe IV, painted around 1626, is a superb example of the style of Velázquez in his early years from Madrid and at the same time, a test of how the artist returned over and over again on his canvases, which had always before his eyes, on the walls of the Alcázar.

Portrait was first composed in the tradition of the 16th century created by Antonio Moro, with legs open to compass, the attitude of three-fourths and supported by a firm hand. But some years later he decided to change the silhouette, putting together the legs, with which figure notably won in slenderness. It is still visible to the naked eye (and further evidenced by x-ray) the original provision.

Velazquez used here the tenebrism of Seville years violent and directed lighting, thus making clearer the intense melancholy expression and the cavalier gesture of the hand holding the memorial. Tones are earthy yet the chestnut of the first stage, but in the background and the shadows on the ground are already some grey that will be his great resource and its Supreme magic, and that is surely still more stressed to retouch the picture maybe to 1629.

Drunkards

To 1629
Canvas. 1.65 x 2.25
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Los borrachos or the triumph of Bacchus was painted in 1629 in Madrid, the next year of the journey from Rubens to the Spanish Court, and who knows if this first mythological composition of Velazquez does not respond to a suggestion of the great flamenco.

But there is nothing more opposed to the pompous and sensual conception of the Antwerp painter than personal, simple and everyday so interpret the scene, almost as picture of gender, that has made think sometimes if the painter intended to express the mythological, copy a drinking scene, or make fun of the old gods.

Baco is a burly brawny, of sensual lips, which has stripped as for mockery, and their companions are rogues or soldiers of thirds, seen in their more immediate reality. The technique is its Seville years, with strong emphasis on light contrasts and a tight and naturalistic modelling. However, greys are introduced in the landscape and the brushwork is somewhat lighter than in his earlier works.

The forge of Vulcan

1630
Canvas. 2.23 x 2.90
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

During his first trip to Italy in 1630 Velázquez painted two canvases colleagues, representing the more "academic" point of production. He impressed undoubtedly artist painting of Bolognese classicism, as its way through Cento, where there was meet the Guercino, which was at the top of its production has. One of these paintings is Joseph's tunic, keeping El Escorial; the other, this Forge of Vulcan, noble frieze of beautiful naked bodies, in harmonious balance of seen and studied composition.

The somewhat rugged mythological subject (the revelation to Vulcano by Apollo of the adultery of his wife Venus) is suggested with a delicate containment that contrasts with the mischievous sensuality putting in this and other episodes of the myth the Flemish painters. The palette has been clarified; gone is any trace of tenebrism and color is harmonized in a range of greys and chestnuts of extraordinary elegance that will be more typical in the future.

Views of the garden of the Villa Medici, Rome

1630 / 1650
Canvas. 0.48 x 0.42
Canvas. 0.44 x 0.38
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Wonderful and tiny landscapes painted by Velázquez copying two corners of the Roman Villa Medici have, in addition to its exceptional beauty and technical modernity, the mysterious charm of its chronological inaccuracies. In his first trip to Italy, from 1629 to 1631, Velázquez, thanks to the recommendation of the Spanish Ambassador, lived in the town, which by its elevation and its gardens was the coolest place of Rome during the heat wave.

No doubt could then, calmly, to paint pleasure, plein air, these vibrant effects of the Sun through the leaves. Some critics believe them effectively that dated and attributed the masterly lightness of touch to lack of concern, because it is a point and not a finished work. Other critics prefer to see these landscapes in the work of his second Roman stay in 1650, evoking, with not without melancholy lyricism, the scene of their already remote and first Roman months.

In one way or another, these small paintings are one of the most evocative aspects of the art of Velazquez. Light air transparency, subtle light vibration, which we will not find to Impressionism, and that attitude of melancholic sensitivity to nature in abandonment, make these small canvases the most modern of all Spanish painting from the 17TH century.

Portrait of Philip IV

To 1631-1632
Canvas. 1.95 x 1.10
National Gallery, London.

King Felipe IV took the throne at the age of sixteen and became official painter to Velázquez, of twenty-four years of age. The relationship between the two was friendly and long-lasting to such an extent that the painter was appointed usher of the Chamber in 1627, followed by other charges, and Knight of Santiago in 1659.

Velázquez was the only portrait of the King, and when, on two occasions, the artist was absent to Italy, nobody made portraits of the monarch. This life-size portrait shows the King with moustache, with unusual splendour dresses (usually wearing dark colors), and with the Golden Fleece hung from a gold chain.

The picture was painted after Velázquez's first trip to Italy (1629-1631). The artist painted directly onto the canvas, so that in some of his works may notice alterations. Embroidered costume is made with light strokes and great subtlety of color. Velázquez considered that this portrait was important, the way you signed the paper carrying the same King in the right hand.

Christ crucified

To 1632
Canvas. 2.48 x 1.69
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

This Christ is one of the most popular velazquenas, and undoubtedly one of the happiest inspiration. Painted around 1632, after the trip to Italy, relates his noble and serene naked with the citations in Italy, and is one of the few religious pictures painted on the Court stage. It responds to an express assignment of the King for the convent of San Placido and has been linked with a beautiful legend of real love.

In the composition of the Christ, serene, with four nails and the bowed head, there is a reminder that on several occasions he painted his father-in-law Pacheco, whose echo also reaches Alonso Cano. Modeling, soft and loose, has lost the sculptural precision of the youth years, but their light, blurred and without barely color paste, technique creates a spongy body of light, but not for that reason less real.

For its serenity and its indefinable mystery has been this canvas starting point of literary meditations. Remember only the long theological poem by Miguel de Unamuno which bears his name.

Pablo de Valladolid

1633
Canvas. 2.09 x 1.23
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

The post of painter's camera meant, apparently, an obligation to portray not only the Kings and tycoons, but also the "vermin of Palace", the world of dwarves, Jesters, crazy and men of pleasure that housed the King in his palace and part of his court.

Velazquez left many times, in the face of these deformed beings, a pathetic, human and deep, impressive testimony of unquestionable objectivity, but also a special delicacy in the treatment of the deformed and an obvious tenderness toward the salvageable from these personalities often sub-human, in patent contrast with cold indifference with which other naturalist artists of his time Ribera for example, approached similar types.

Paul (or Pablillos) of Valladolid, painted in 1633, has been called at times "the actor" by his declamatory gesture. It is one of the most amazing achievements of the velazquena aerial perspective. The figure remains firmly planted on his feet, which rely on a surface just created with light and shadow, for there is no bottom or milder reference spatial geometry that mark the floor or wall.

San Antonio Abad and Paul, first hermit

About 1634-1635
Canvas. 2.57 x 1.88
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Royal Commission for the altar of the chapel of San Pablo in the gardens of the Buen Retiro, this beautiful canvas was painted about 1634-1635. It is also one of the few religious canvases of the long Court stage of Velázquez. The composition, very simple, seems to be inspired of the early Renaissance or medieval prints. Masterful absolutely is the treatment of the broad landscape, with a lightness of touch and a unity of tone plated absolutely modern.

Don Gaspar de Guzmán, count-Duke of Olivares

1634-1635
Canvas. 3.13 x 2.39
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Painted without a doubt in date next to the Royal Equestrian portraits of the Palace of Buen Retiro, 1634-1635, and no doubt with the same palette, this count Duke of Olivares, also on horseback, responds to a scheme somewhat ostentatious, pompous and theatrical. Perhaps also (for once in the sober Velazquez) flattering and disimulador of imperfections, because gesture, of an arrogant, bellicose momentum never the Conde Duque, had cleverly conceals charged backs and the nothing graceful bearing of the Almighty ruler which both protected the painter.

The canvas, as pure painting, has since then master. See the juiciness of the color, which harmonizes tone Brown outgoing horse with silver shines and the Green distance grey, dominant cold. The painting to the own Conde Duque, certainly joined in the 18th century in the Royal collections by purchase the Marqués de la Ensenada.

The Queen Margarita de Austria, wife of Felipe III

1634-1635
Canvas. 3.01 x 3,14
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

This equestrian portrait was part of Felipe III, of Felipe IV, Doña Isabel de Borbón and infante Baltasar Carlos, the decoration of the Hall of Buen Retiro kingdoms. But as well as those of Felipe IV and the infante Baltasar are entirely hand velazquena, East of Doña Margarita and Felipe III and Doña Isabel pose a problem not yet entirely resolved.

It is evident that Velázquez was unable to perform the detailed and monotonous trappings and embroidered cloaks of these portraits, showing in addition (and cleaning brand in the workshop of the Museo del Prado has shown it) bands of fabric added to both sides of each composition, while the surface entirely retouched by a vibrant and safe hand may not be but that of Velázquez.

The logical interpretation is to see Velazquez tweaking and adapting some existing paintings to its place in the great Hall, and completing the decoration with paintings entirely yours here. It is likely that pre-existing portraits were work of Rodrigo de Villandrando, his predecessor in certain palatal posts and artist's technique even closer to the de Pantoja de la Cruz, as the showing these pictures.

It is in this portrait of Margarita of Austria, the first wife of Felipe III, where the participation of Velázquez warns with more evidence. The landscape is entirely yours. In the side edges it is treated with lightness of aguada, as decorative painting almost without previous preparation. The face of the Queen and the luxurious and heavy mantle of gala dress, another painter, are animated by a light drizzle that enliven unsuspected mode set. But it is in the horse where Velázquez, superb interpreter of the animal Kingdom, has left the best of itself. With touches of sovereign freedom, it has given life to this unforgettable animal, Majesty and intelligence truly real.

Spears or the surrender of Breda

1634-1635
Canvas. 3.07 x 3.67
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

For the decoration of the Hall of Buen Retiro kingdoms, in which also work both older courtiers artists (Carducho, Caxés, Maino) and the youngest (José Leonardo, Pereda) promises, made Velazquez to 1634 one of his works of beauty, that would also become one of the most popular: The surrender of Breda or Las Lanzas.

The canvas is without a doubt one of the capitals of all the universal painting that we have tried to express a contemporary military. Composition, serene classical balance, contrasts the gestures of the protagonists, Victor and vanquished, in elegant harmony: serene and cordial Victor; with decent performance resigned the vanquished.

Velázquez knew very well the face of general Ambrosio Spínola, because he had made his first trip to Italy with him and maybe hear him personally comment on the famous weapons fact happened in 1625. The characters who accompany are more than parades, because both the Group of Spaniards and the Dutch are strictly individual.

The landscape in the background of unforgettable a luminosity and transparency, gives us the extent of the "painter of the air" Velazquez. Numerous background to the composition in French and Flemish, often mediocre, engravings that Velázquez was interpreted with the goal of truth that makes his style the most simply pictorial art history have been noted.

Prince Baltasar Carlos

1635 1636
Canvas. 2.09 x 1.73
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

The same set of the Hall of realms, but already entirely painted by Velazquez, comes this delightful portrait of the unfortunate Prince, with its jaca in Corvette cropping on the silver background of the Guadarrama mountains with snow, where stands the peak of the malicious. The infant is without a doubt one of the most sympathetic figures of all the Gallery of characters representation.

The somewhat thankless effect of the animal, seen frontally is somewhat rigid and disproportionate, corrected taking into account that it was painted for above door, with vision below above, which gives all its vivacity and boldness of Baroque foreshortened, technical Velázquez was no doubt see in recorded Flemish masters of military exaltation, known and still popular in its time.

Equestrian portrait of Felipe IV of Spain [detail]

1634-1635
Canvas. 1.26 x 0.93
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Preserved in the Museum of the Prado in Madrid, this work was perhaps sent to Florence to serve as a model to the sculptor Pietro Tacca, who should carve an equestrian monument of Felipe IV bound for Madrid. Vivid and bright colors, clear bypass Venetian, but interpreted in silver shades, according to the taste of Velazquez, constitute the chromatic model of innumerable paintings collection and perhaps modern, despite the freshness and speed with which the canvas was made.

Real wild boar hunting

1635-1640
Canvas. 1.82 x 3.02
National Gallery, London.

The work represents a hunt and was commissioned to decorate the Tower of the stop, for which Rubens also performed some mythological pictures Velázquez. Certain figures and landscape in the background may not be the same Velázquez artwork; have you thought about the brush's harness.

This form of hunting wild boars was costly and complicated, as it had to close down the area where were wild animals with a fence consisting of fabric or canvas (contratela). The King and his companions were after with pitchforks animals (some reserve may be resting against a tree), Hounds tired to wild boars and poachers fired on them, as you can see on the left.

Next to the King, on the right, in the foreground is the count-Duke of Olivares, and the other two Knights can be the King brothers, as well as the Lady on the float can be his first wife, Isabel, although its exact identification is difficult. The same applies to many of the figures that are outside the fence, some of which are clearly portraits.

Portrait of the count-Duke of Olivares

1637 1638
Canvas. 0.67 x 0.54
Museum of Hermitage, Petersburgo.

The count-Duke of Olivares, character portrayed in this picture of the Hermitage, was favourite of King Felipe IV and during almost a quarter century exerted an unlimited influence on the monarch. It is extremely surprising realism with which Velázquez conveys the main features of the protagonist. The image reflects the severe character of the count-Duke and simultaneously reveals aspects that are discover unusual tenacity and ingenuity. Different shades of color model the face with mastery and unequal brush strokes enhance the formation of factions. The work is a finished sample of extraordinary realism achieved by the brilliant artist.

The jester Calabacillas

1637-1639
Canvas. 1.06 x 0.83
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Erroneously known for the Bobo de Coria, which is modern name, this pathetic canvas representing the jester Calabacillas, who own Velázquez portrayed again with a paper in his hand grinder. With your stupid smile and his fearful of beleaguered animal gesture, it is surely the most shocking of all series. Admirable is the harmony of black and Brown hues and lightness of the brush, where some fragments, as in the face, reaching ends that we will again find only in the latest works.

This abocetada Bill did was believed her work of the old age of the painter, but there was paint before 1639, in which consists the model died. It is possible, however, that it retocase it or intensified years later, as he did in so many other paintings, in Palace always remained under his eyes and the scope of their brushes.

Aesop

1639 1640
Canvas. 1.79 x 0.94
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Except for the inscription accompanying the figure, nothing would think, to this worthy Street beggar painted so juicy in the old Greek fabulist realism. The canvas, as a fellow of the philosopher Menippus, painted with similar trace, was performed for the Tower of the stop, Palace of hunting and recreation in the forest of the Pardo, between 1639-1640.

The idea of representing the ancient philosophers as vulgar characters and models taken from the street was not new; He had done it before, perhaps with more rudeness, Ribera, and the Neapolitan artists were doing. Velazquez has put here (along with personal sense of nobility, even within the frayed of the figure) his technical mastery and the safe of his more mature style and loose brushstroke.

Self-portrait

1643
Canvas. 1.01 x 0.80
Gallery of the Uffizi, Florence.

Two self-portraits of Velazquez, one of medium bust and the other, here reproduced, in little more than half body are preserved in the Uffizi Gallery. It is easy to recognize great art and fast resourcefulness of his brush in firm, almost daring, framing in the warm tones of Browns and blacks and the intense expression of the face. Velazquez interpreted and recreated with personality the colors of Titian and the brightness of Caravaggio, achieving those environmental effects, where the light models the objects with great naturalness.

The jester D. Diego de Acedo, "El Primo"

Towards 1645
Canvas. 1.07 x 0.82
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

In this picturesque effigy of D. Diego de Acedo loco there as a mockery of the world of genealogists and scavengers removing of ascents that swarmed in the Spain of his time. Thick folios are the setting for this curious character who seems to know inside out pedigrees and enforceable of nobility. Serious black clothes and even tone absent dignity of his face gone make it perhaps the most severe and Court Jesters series. As pure painting, mastery of blacks and greys and the palpable reality of still life make it part of the first order.

Venus in the mirror

To 1649-1651
Canvas. 1.22 x 1.77
National Gallery, London.

Naked women are a rather unusual theme in Spanish painting. Although Velázquez is only kept a picture of naked, it is known that he painted at least three others. The first record of this work comes from 1651, in the collection of the Marquis of Carpio, who was the son of the Prime Minister of the King.

The picture could be painted before the second trip of Velázquez to Italy (1649-1651) or in Italy itself, from where it would be sent to Spain. The artist created his own image of the goddess Venus, but the idea of rest it and present it on your back, with Cupid holding a mirror, comes from Tiziano.

Rather than show strong contrasts of light and shadow and prepare with meticulous fidelity objects surface texture to create an illusion of reality, Velázquez arrives here to paint what the eye really sees. Colors merge with each other, the contours are not highlighted and details are suggested but not described. The reflection of the goddess is not real, the mirror can not pick up the face of Venus from this position. A strip added at the top of the canvas indicates that the inclusion of Cupid with the mirror was subsequent to the first realization.

Portrait of the infanta Margarita

1653-1654
Canvas. 0.70 x 0.59
Musée du Louvre, Paris.

The Louvre remains a severe portrait without concessions from the Queen Mariana, beside which the portrait of infanta Margarita, which inspired the artist, often small is a charming grace. Even though this square was completed by Mallet, Velázquez's son-in-law, is a good example of a bold and at the same time economic, technique that within a free Bill outlines the details and evokes the quality of real objects, at the same time that uses a modern touch that anticipated that of the first Impressionist works by Renoir.

Las Meninas

1656
Canvas. 3.18 x 2.76
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Painted in 1656, the canvas that is called "the family" in real inventories and usage has consecrated as Las Meninas is more than just a set of portraits. On occasion the "Theology of painting" has been called and actually never as in it has been a piece of pure painting, abstraction of the air and the spatial relationships of things in a lively atmosphere and a concrete and measurable space.

A virtual bass of the old Alcazar of Madrid, white walls covered in paintings, the Royal family has met so the Chamber painter portrays the Kings. The infantita, more immediate servers, the dwarves, the Mastiff, are equally treated as pure plastic elements, cast all in almost palpable air that dora light under high ceilings. The Kings, ideally located where today stands the viewer reflect his image painted in the mirror in the background, and the painter the look (we see it) with peer and depth.

The plastic shaft of the box, to which the two "meninas" that bring him drinking in a fresh vase of mud, leaning is the infanta Margarita Maria, future Empress of Germany, for more than five years, full of children grace and with some already feminine coquetry in the complicated and rigid court suit. The painting technique is very light when touring the gleam of the silks of his suit and the meninas, dwarfs and owners, all name and biography known. The hit of Sun from the bottom and bright dust front windows make the rather vivid picture, with instantly surprised reality.

But at the same time, surely there are in the box allegorical and perhaps political, not yet sufficiently clear intentions. The box, also has the interest of show us the safest effigy of the painter that we maintain. Fifty-seven-year-old man, serene, noble aspect and phlegmatic porte, as his biographers describe it, it has embodied in his own work of painter of the nobility. The cross of Santiago, which was granted in 1659, was added to the canvas, perhaps after the death of Velazquez.

The spinners

To 1657
Canvas. 2.20 x 2.89
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

The work of the last years of the painter, the spinners was played for a long time as picture of gender, simple vision of a workshop at the Royal tapestry factory; something inconceivable in the Spain of his time for such large dimensions chart. Today we know that the picture actually represents a mythological passage: the contest of shovels and Arachne about her abilities on the loom, which concludes with the curse of Palas, the suicide of Arachne and its transformation into a spider.

As in his other mythological paintings, Velazquez has eluded all bombast and has magnified the allusions to daily life contained in the myth, in this case closed and manufacturing environment of the loom. The technique has become wonderfully loose and impressionistic touch suggests and curdles the reality in all its vividness. Security and the mastery of Velázquez to capture the transitory has here, perhaps, its most perfect realization. The air circulates and almost hear tingling lathe spinning wheel.

The canvas was painted for a private collector, don Pedro de Arce, and not entered until the 18th century in the Royal collections, then suffering a few additions of importance at the top and on the left side who changed (must be said that with extraordinary skill) its original proportions.

The infanta Doña Margarita de Austria [detail]

Around 1660
Canvas. 2.12 x 1.47
Museo del Prado, Madrid.

This portrait is perhaps the last work that Velazquez put the brushes, and it is still possible that, as some critics claim, the canvas has been completed by his son-in-law Martínez del Mazo, who inherited his position as house painter.

Velázquez, who in the last years of his life due to paint shortly and only official portraits, occupied his time by other chores of its growing importance in the Palace life, left several masterly portraits of this Princess destined to be Empress of Germany, some of which are today the Vienna Museum gala.

Here the painter extended the harmony of tones with dominant salmon pink and Silver's bombastic Court costume, and perhaps reached the highest point in the process of dematerialization of their technique, here made the brushstroke pure air and light foam. See, for example, almost implausible transparency of lace scarf or bright crackling of the hand and the rose.

Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas