This book is the first to address the curatorial career of Diego Velázquez, painter to King Philip IV of Spain and chamberlain of his royal palace. It investigates the role that Velázquez played in overseeing the display of the Habsburg art collection, then the richest in the western world, and the role, in turn, that this practice played in his creative trajectory between his arrival at the Spanish court in 1623 and his death in 1660. This book thus recasts Velázquez’s career as an episode in the history of the curator.
Julia Vázquez, Ph.D. (2020, Columbia University) is Postdoctoral Fellow in the Lise Meitner Research Group at the Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max Planck Institute for Art History.
Acknowledgments List of Illustrations
Introduction: Toward a History of the Curator
1
Origin Myths 1 Titian’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles V
2 Velázquez’s Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV
2
Multiple Viewpoints 1 The Octagonal Room
2 Velázquez, veedor y contador
3 Velázquez’s Sculptures
3
Recto/Verso 1 The Vaults of Titian
2 The Rokeby Venus, Reconsidered
4
El Escorial 1 Sacristy, Ante-Sacristy, Hall of Moral Theology, and Chapter Room of the Prior
2 Velázquez’s Frames
5
Velázquez, Painter and Curator 1 Velázquez, aposentador mayor de palacio
2 From “New Room” to “Hall of Mirrors”
3 Mercury and Argus, Reconsidered
6
Les Suivants 1 Reconsidering Las Meninas
2 Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo’s The Family of the Artist
3 Juan Carreño de Miranda’s Charles II
Conclusion(s) Appendix Bibliography Index
The readership for this book is academic (art historians and graduate students): universities, academic libraries, and research institutes. Keywords: museum, collection, display, Spanish, Golden Age, collecting, curator, Velázquez.