Velazquez Part 2

PLATE VIII.--THE PRINCESS MARIA THERESA OF AUSTRIA

This daughter of Philip IV. became Queen of France. The picture was painted when she was about ten years of age, and consequently belongs to the last period of Velazquez' work. It was hung in the Alcazar until some time in the eighteenth century, when it was transferred to the Prado.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate VIII.]

There are pictures by Velazquez to be seen in Madrid outside the Prado, but for the most part they are in private houses, and are not accessible to everybody. Seville boasts half-a-dozen canvases by her greatest painter, and there are a few elsewhere in Spain; but it may be said that those who know the Salon of Isabella have seen Velazquez at his best, and that those who have seen his other pictures and have not visited the Prado, do not know Velazquez at all.

Perhaps there are pleasant surprises yet in store for the art world, for many pictures are still untraced. Doubtless some have been destroyed by fire and others are in half-forgotten lumber rooms of palaces and galleries from which they will be gathered in due course.

Velazquez owes a large part of his popularity in Spain to-day to the measure of appreciation he has secured beyond the borders. Every second-hand dealer in Madrid or Seville has a "genuine Murillo" to offer the stranger. It is worth a thousand pounds; but as the dealer is an honest man, he will sell it first for two hundred, then for one, and finally for fifteen or even ten. But no second-hand dealer shows a "genuine Velazquez." He knows that at best it could only appeal to artists, and he knows them for strange folk endowed with much enthusiasm, little money, and an embarra.s.sing measure of knowledge of the methods by which genuine old masters are created to supply a long-felt want.

The plates are printed by BEMROSE DALZIEL, LTD., Watford

The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh

IN THE SAME SERIES

ARTIST. AUTHOR.

VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN.

REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN.

TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND.

ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND.

GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN.

BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS.

ROSSETTI. LUCIEN p.i.s.sARRO.

BELLINI. GEORGE HAY.

FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON.

REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS.

LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY.

RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY.

HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE.

t.i.tIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN.

CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY.

LUINI. JAMES MASON.

TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN.

_Others in Preparation._