Velazquez and His Works

William Stirling Maxwell, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, Diego Velazquez de Silva

GCA

tailing, extending from west to east, consisted of a range of pavilions, one story high, and upwards of 300 feet in length. In the centre rose the hall of ovnference, flanked by wings, each Wang & ste of four chambers, in which re of scomodation was meted with

the næst ̧ustive to France and to Spain. Along each front of the edifice ran an entrance portico, Lng by means of a covered gallery,

a brief boats, whereby the monarchs ere to make their attrach, each from his own We apartments were as gor

mamas conld make them.

rs superintended the decora

the Stash side my, as far as the centre of the ho I Am be. The same style of

Lowever prevaled throughout; the Dog warmed to tastes of silk and gold.

for tapestries, presenting histories para ne bi ng of the ark of Nul si. ie aty of B.mus or the adventures 2012. St. Paul The French decorators

had a leaning to the lays and legends of Greece and Rome,1 and the tapestries on their side of the great hall recorded the feats of Scipio and Hannibal, and the Metamorphoses of Ovid; while the hangings of the graver Spaniards revealed the mysteries of the Apocalypse.2

4

This upholstery work, better suited to the capacities of a carpenter, or of a lord-in-waiting, was not the most fatiguing part of the task imposed on Velazquez. As aposentador, it was his business to find lodging for the king and court along the whole road from Madrid. Even with the assistance of Villareal3 and of Mazo Martinez, who also accompanied him, this must have been an undertaking that required time and labour; for Philip IV. travelled with a train of oriental magnitude. On the 15th of April, having made his will and commended himself to Our Lady of Atocha, that monarch set out from the capital, accompanied by the infanta, and followed by three thousand five hundred mules, eighty-two horses,

1 Their first gallery was hung, says Castillo, p. 227, with 'veinte y dos paños de las fabulas of Sipques y Cupido,' a strange reading for Psyche. So in Butron's Discursos, fol. 120, we find L. da Vinci disguised as Leonardo de Bins.

2 Castillo: Viage, pp. 225-8. 3 Page 182. 4 Castillo: Viage, p. 56.