Product Description

In this beautiful and engaging book, an art historian and a conservation scientist discuss the techniques Vel‡zquez created in order to realize his artistic vision. Examining thirty works by Vel‡zquez that span his entire career, the authors show how his technical achievement developed over time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #406844 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Review
"Velazquez: The Technique of Genius is an illuminating introduction to what can be learnt from the surface of the pictures... It is built round illustrations of details, nearly all from paintings in the Prado." Peter Campbell, London Review of Books "A ravishingly beautiful, highly informative book. Brown and Garrido work well together, interweaving the artistic/historical background with the messy forensic facts effortlessly; the detail is stunning." George Crisp, Art Review

From the Back Cover
"Vel‡zquez: The Technique of Genius is an illuminating introduction to what can be learnt from the surface of the pictures. . . . It is built round illustrations of details, nearly all from paintings in the Prado."-Peter Campbell, London Review of Books; "A ravishingly beautiful, highly informative book. Brown and Garrido work well together, interweaving the artistic/historical background with the messy forensic facts effortlessly; the detail is stunning."-George Crisp, Art Review

About the Author
Jonathan Brown is Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Fine Arts at New York University. He is the author of many books on Spanish art, including The Golden Age of Painting in Spain, Vel‡zquez: Painter and Courtier, and, with John Elliott, Palace for a King, all published by Yale University Press. Carmen Garrido is head of technical services at the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Customer Reviews

important, interesting topic - mediocre results
I think the first reviewer has mentioned the important points, but I would highlight some of the conclusions.

The purpose of this book is to apply the tools of art history and conservation to the practical question of how Velasquez painted his masterpieces. This is a topic of primary interest to practicing painters, and it is an approach that may prove fruitful in the future, but I think is only moderately successful here.

The important contribution of this book is the large number of close up views of a small number of paintings. The image quality is good, though not of the highest quality.

The text and analysis does address the practical question of how the paintings were constructed, but only provides rather shallow results. The ground used, the pigment selection, additions to the canvas - these topics are well covered. But the more involved question of how the paint layers were developed was not really explained. In the end there is little information for someone seeking to understand precisely how these paintings were made.

As the first reviewer mentioned, the art historical background has a sort of "rah rah" quality. For example, referring to The Fable of Arachne: "The expressive potential of color posited in the works of Titian is here [by Velasquez] exploited in ways that this venerated old master could never have conceived."

How many stars should you give to the only book on this very important topic? If you are a painter you have to buy it. I give it three stars, and will keep the book for the illustrations.

Ingenius rendering of face and body expressions!
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.

The best book on the technique of Velazquez to date.
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!