By John Russell
New York Times
29 September 1989
C1, C27
”VELAZQUEZ” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a show that no one ever expected to see. The first exhibition ever to be devoted to Velazquez, whether in Spain or anywhere else, it includes many great paintings by the pre-eminent master of the Spanish school. From the tiny head and shoulders of the poet Gongora (done when Velazquez was only 23 years old) to the tranquil mix of landscape, narrative and sainted portraiture in ”St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul the Hermit,” we know exactly where we are – in the presence, that is to say, of a painter who can make us feel both secure in the world and at one with it.
We believe in him completely. We recognize the tight, closed, wary features of Gongora as those of a difficult and idiosyncratic master of verse. We also recognize the economy, the rigor and the feeling for fact above all things in the way that Velazquez handled this tricky and very early assignment.
And when the raven brings the daily bread to St. Paul the Hermit in his rocky fastness, we recognize it as having come from the best baker in Madrid.
Many visitors will prefer to most everything else in the show the irresistible portrait of the Infanta Margarita. Blessed with a charm not universal among members of the Spanish royal family at that date, the little princess could not be more winningly rendered. To the unerring helterskelter of the brush across her elaborate court costume there is added, as if by an afterthought of genius, the still life of roses, irises and daisies that is one of the supreme achievements of its kind in European art.
”VELAZQUEZ” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a show that no one ever expected to see. The first exhibition ever to be devoted to Velazquez, whether in Spain or anywhere else, it includes many great paintings by the pre-eminent master of the Spanish school. From the tiny head and shoulders of the poet Gongora (done when Velazquez was only 23 years old) to the tranquil mix of landscape, narrative and sainted portraiture in ”St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul the Hermit,” we know exactly where we are – in the presence, that is to say, of a painter who can make us feel both secure in the world and at one with it.
We believe in him completely. We recognize the tight, closed, wary features of Gongora as those of a difficult and idiosyncratic master of verse. We also recognize the economy, the rigor and the feeling for fact above all things in the way that Velazquez handled this tricky and very early assignment.
And when the raven brings the daily bread to St. Paul the Hermit in his rocky fastness, we recognize it as having come from the best baker in Madrid.
Many visitors will prefer to most everything else in the show the irresistible portrait of the Infanta Margarita. Blessed with a charm not universal among members of the Spanish royal family at that date, the little princess could not be more winningly rendered. To the unerring helterskelter of the brush across her elaborate court costume there is added, as if by an afterthought of genius, the still life of roses, irises and daisies that is one of the supreme achievements of its kind in European art.
”VELAZQUEZ” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a show that no one ever expected to see. The first exhibition ever to be devoted to Velazquez, whether in Spain or anywhere else, it includes many great paintings by the pre-eminent master of the Spanish school. From the tiny head and shoulders of the poet Gongora (done when Velazquez was only 23 years old) to the tranquil mix of landscape, narrative and sainted portraiture in ”St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul the Hermit,” we know exactly where we are – in the presence, that is to say, of a painter who can make us feel both secure in the world and at one with it.
We believe in him completely. We recognize the tight, closed, wary features of Gongora as those of a difficult and idiosyncratic master of verse. We also recognize the economy, the rigor and the feeling for fact above all things in the way that Velazquez handled this tricky and very early assignment.
And when the raven brings the daily bread to St. Paul the Hermit in his rocky fastness, we recognize it as having come from the best baker in Madrid.
Many visitors will prefer to most everything else in the show the irresistible portrait of the Infanta Margarita. Blessed with a charm not universal among members of the Spanish royal family at that date, the little princess could not be more winningly rendered. To the unerring helterskelter of the brush across her elaborate court costume there is added, as if by an afterthought of genius, the still life of roses, irises and daisies that is one of the supreme achievements of its kind in European art.
”VELAZQUEZ” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a show that no one ever expected to see. The first exhibition ever to be devoted to Velazquez, whether in Spain or anywhere else, it includes many great paintings by the pre-eminent master of the Spanish school. From the tiny head and shoulders of the poet Gongora (done when Velazquez was only 23 years old) to the tranquil mix of landscape, narrative and sainted portraiture in ”St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul the Hermit,” we know exactly where we are – in the presence, that is to say, of a painter who can make us feel both secure in the world and at one with it.
We believe in him completely. We recognize the tight, closed, wary features of Gongora as those of a difficult and idiosyncratic master of verse. We also recognize the economy, the rigor and the feeling for fact above all things in the way that Velazquez handled this tricky and very early assignment.
And when the raven brings the daily bread to St. Paul the Hermit in his rocky fastness, we recognize it as having come from the best baker in Madrid.
Many visitors will prefer to most everything else in the show the irresistible portrait of the Infanta Margarita. Blessed with a charm not universal among members of the Spanish royal family at that date, the little princess could not be more winningly rendered. To the unerring helterskelter of the brush across her elaborate court costume there is added, as if by an afterthought of genius, the still life of roses, irises and daisies that is one of the supreme achievements of its kind in European art.
”VELAZQUEZ” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a show that no one ever expected to see. The first exhibition ever to be devoted to Velazquez, whether in Spain or anywhere else, it includes many great paintings by the pre-eminent master of the Spanish school. From the tiny head and shoulders of the poet Gongora (done when Velazquez was only 23 years old) to the tranquil mix of landscape, narrative and sainted portraiture in ”St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul the Hermit,” we know exactly where we are – in the presence, that is to say, of a painter who can make us feel both secure in the world and at one with it.
We believe in him completely. We recognize the tight, closed, wary features of Gongora as those of a difficult and idiosyncratic master of verse. We also recognize the economy, the rigor and the feeling for fact above all things in the way that Velazquez handled this tricky and very early assignment.
And when the raven brings the daily bread to St. Paul the Hermit in his rocky fastness, we recognize it as having come from the best baker in Madrid.
Many visitors will prefer to most everything else in the show the irresistible portrait of the Infanta Margarita. Blessed with a charm not universal among members of the Spanish royal family at that date, the little princess could not be more winningly rendered. To the unerring helterskelter of the brush across her elaborate court costume there is added, as if by an afterthought of genius, the still life of roses, irises and daisies that is one of the supreme achievements of its kind in European art.
”VELAZQUEZ” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a show that no one ever expected to see. The first exhibition ever to be devoted to Velazquez, whether in Spain or anywhere else, it includes many great paintings by the pre-eminent master of the Spanish school. From the tiny head and shoulders of the poet Gongora (done when Velazquez was only 23 years old) to the tranquil mix of landscape, narrative and sainted portraiture in ”St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul the Hermit,” we know exactly where we are – in the presence, that is to say, of a painter who can make us feel both secure in the world and at one with it.
We believe in him completely. We recognize the tight, closed, wary features of Gongora as those of a difficult and idiosyncratic master of verse. We also recognize the economy, the rigor and the feeling for fact above all things in the way that Velazquez handled this tricky and very early assignment.
And when the raven brings the daily bread to St. Paul the Hermit in his rocky fastness, we recognize it as having come from the best baker in Madrid.
Many visitors will prefer to most everything else in the show the irresistible portrait of the Infanta Margarita. Blessed with a charm not universal among members of the Spanish royal family at that date, the little princess could not be more winningly rendered. To the unerring helterskelter of the brush across her elaborate court costume there is added, as if by an afterthought of genius, the still life of roses, irises and daisies that is one of the supreme achievements of its kind in European art.