Velazquez: The Technique of Genius

This book made me love Velasquez. The true quality of his work can not me appreciated from afar. The close-ups, as other reviews state, make the book. I have spent hours staring at these pictures, and I felt like I was watching him paint. I own hundreds of art books, and this is the one I would save if my studio burned down.

This book enables the reader to not only penetrate some of Velasquez's secrets, but also to focus on some wonderfully photographed details of his most famous paintings (brushstrokes are even distinguishable in some cases). It is almost better than a museum experience, since in museums you are usually kept at a certain distance from such precious works. To the professional artist, it undoubtedly gives valuable insights on the great master's skills and technique; to the layman like myself, it gives a unique opportunity to enter the sphere of high art.

The book consists in essence of two parts: The first 20 pages cover briefly Velazquez's life, career, techniques, and materials. The rest of the book comments on the artist's works.Concisely, the author discusses the artist's choice on (painting) supports, pigments and colors, and composition and execution, as a prelude for in-depth discussions of the artist's works that follow.Common art appreciaters will enjoy beautiful paintings (of in general not-very-beautiful people) in which face expressions and body language are deploited ingeniusly by the artist to convey drunkeness, retardation, sovereignty, self-importance, etc...As for readers who are artists, an in-depth discussion on each painting reveals (with the aid of radiograph) techniques and procedures Velazquez used to create his work. In essence, a majority of Velazquez paintings were prepared with a layer of flake white as foundation. Over the underpainting, the artist applied pigments of different homogeneity and thickness to render desired effects. In addition, close-up pictures of painting details allow readers to understand better the secrets of creating luminosity in the paintings of this painter.Perhaps as interesting is that mistakes and corrections made by Velazquez in his masterpieces are also unveiled, indicating the fact that although ingenius, the artist did have certain "imperfections" in his art maneuver.

This very fine book on the painter Velazquez is full of historical details, details of the master's painting techniques, and many photographic details of his masterpieces. The several close-up detail reproductions of each painting in the book show the artist's brush strokes and the weave of the canvas as the text describes the pigments used. This extraordinary art book deserves close examination.

This recent addition to my Velazquez collection, is by far the best yet on the technique of this master painter. Jonathan Brown has again produced a book with wonderful information and reproductions. A must have for the Art historian, Art lover, and Fanatic of Velazquez!