Velazquez - National Gallery
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
AN EXHIBITION, the first of its kind tracing the career of one of the world’s greatest painters, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660), and entitled simply Velazquez, can be seen at the National Gallery from October 18, 2006 to January 21, 2007.
From his beginnings in Seville, Velázquez demonstrated a precocious ability to observe and record reality.
At the courts of Philip IV, he achieved ever greater physical and psychological naturalism with ever more pronounced and elegant brushstrokes, ultimately realising miraculous effects of illusion with an astounding, abbreviated technique that inspired not only future realists but also the Impressionists.
Drawing on the National Gallery’s rich holdings of the artist, plus major loans from the Museo del Prado and other collections, the exhibition demonstrates Velázquez’s extraordinary development.
Included are religious and mythological paintings as well as portraits.
Also at the National Gallery: Cezanne in Britain.
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