Velazquez. The Complete Works

Description

Manet called him "the greatest painter of all." Picasso was so inspired by his masterpiece Las Meninas that he painted 44 variations of it. Francis Bacon painted a study of his portrait of Pope Innocent X. Monet and Renoir, Corot and Courbet, Degas and Dali... for so many champions of art history, the ultimate sounding board was-and remains-Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (1599-1660). First available as an XXL-sized volume, this accessible edition brings together Velazquez's complete works with a selection of enlarged details and photography of recently restored paintings, achieved through the joint initiative of TASCHEN and Wildenstein. The dazzling images are accompanied by insightful commentary from Jose Lopez-Rey on Velazquez's interest in human life and his equal attention to all subjects, from an old woman frying eggs to a pope or king, as well as his commitment to color and light, which would influence the Impressionists over two centuries later.

Jose Lopez-Rey (1905-1991) taught Italian Renaissance at the University of Madrid and worked as an art advisor for the Spanish Ministry of Education. Before the end of the Spanish Civil War, he emigrated to the USA, where he resumed his teaching career at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York. In 1973 he was awarded emeritus status. Lopez-Rey was a corresponding member of the Hispanic Society of America and a consultant and contributor to several international art journals, including the Gazette des Beaux Arts and Art News. Odile Delenda, graduate of the Ecole du Louvre, served as professor there, and then as deputy head of the department of paintings at the Musee du Louvre until 2007. She has collaborated on several exhibitions of old master paintings. A research fellow at the Wildenstein Institute in Paris since 1990, she has continued her study of Spanish art from the Siglo de Oro. She is, among other works, the author of Velasquez, peintre religieux (1993) and, under the auspices of the Wildenstein Institute, the first critical catalogue raisonne of the painted oeuvre of Francisco de Zurbaran and his studio (2009/10).

...a publication to seduce even those who might usually dismiss photographic reproductions of works. * The Financial Times * ...the full breadth of the artist's output is a must-have. * artnet.com * This mighty volume scores in allowing us to get so much closer to his pictures than any of its predecessors ever have. * standard.co.uk *