As court painter to Philip IV Velázquez travelled to Italy in 1649 to buy pictures for the Spanish Royal Collection.
While in Rome he painted the portrait of Pope Innocent X. The full-length painting hangs in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome. The Wellington Collection portrait is said to be a copy the artist made to bring back to Madrid.
A letter dated 8th July 1651 from the Papal Nuncio in Madrid states that Velázquez returned from Italy bringing with him “a good many original by the best painters as well as a very like portrait of our Lord (Innocent X) which his majesty (the King of Spain) has shown to enjoy very much”.
A typical early painting by Velázquez, painted in Seville possibly 1618-1620 and similar in style to ‘An Old Woman cooking Eggs’ in the National Gallery, Edinburgh.
Two young men sit at a table where different earthenware vessels, food and other utensils are placed. Our eye is drawn to the wonderful still life on the table, the two men are turned from our gaze intent on their food.
The two men may be kitchen helpers taking a short break from their work. This forms part of a series of paintings showing realistic scenes of ordinary Spanish people not unlike the 16th century Flemish school.
This is one of the most famous early paintings by Velázquez, produced in his home town of Seville when he was in his late teens or early 20s before he moved to Madrid.
An old man in ragged clothes pours water for his two customers; the young boy in the foreground averts his pale face from the dark-skinned waterseller, the second customer is in shadow.
The use of light to model his characters and produce a sombre and moving portrait shows the artist’s skill. The viewer is not invited into the picture, the subjects avert their gaze not just from us but from each other.
St James is identified by his staff and is shown reading an inscription from the sixth article of the Apostles’ Creed, ‘He ascended into heaven and sits at the right side of the father’.
The painting was engraved in 1792 when it hung in the Royal Palace in Madrid. No other version of this composition are known.
The saint is shown enveloped in his cloak, this red cloak appears in other paintings by the artist (see St John the Baptist also in the Wellington Collection) and the foreshortening of the head is similar to Ribera’s St Paul the Hermit in the Prado, Madrid. Ribera was born in Spain but moved as a young man to Italy and lived in Rome and Naples.
This is not typical of Ribera’s style and is thought to be from his early period before 1620. Although born in Spain he moved ot Italy and lived in both in Rome and Naples.
It is an exact copy of an engraving by Agostino Veneziano. The flesh tones and the fact that it is painted on copper could reflect the influence of the Dutch and Flemish schools.
The subject matter has been interpreted as a witch in the guise of Hecate, the goddess of magic, riding the skeleton of a monstrous figure, with her retinue.
There is an inscription which reads Raphael Urbinas inventor which implies that this was originally Raphael’s design.
The identity of the sitter has caused much debate: could he be the artist Alonso Cano; the playwright Pedro Calderón; or even the artist himself?
A more recent suggestion is José Nieto, who appears in the background of the famous Las Meninas painting (Prado, Madrid), and was a chamberlain in the Spanish royal household. Certainly the artist would have known José Nieto but his would be a much younger version of the man who appears in Las Meninas.
Some elements of the portrait appear sketchy but the intense gaze of the sitter is powerful and engaging, heightened by the fact that the colour palette is limited and all the viewer’s concentration is drawn by the face with its powerful gaze.
