Velazquez Master Copy

Velazquez Master Copy

Master Copy of Velazquez's Painting, Portrait of Francisco Pacheco

Inspiration

My love of Velazquez goes back to junior high school and high school. I was a history buff from an early age and read everything I could get my hands on the Renaissance and early modern period in Europe from 1450-1700. Special topics for me were the Tudors, Hapsburgs, and all things Spanish.  I read and studied everything that I could on art of the time, especially the portraiture of Holbein, Titian and Velazquez who were the royal portraitist of their day.  My grandmother always found me fantastic books on all of my favorite subjects. I do remember her bringing home a book on the history of Spanish Art, one on El Greco and and one devoted to Velazquez. I poured over them again and again. These artists have remained favorites until today.

About six months ago, I had the pleasure of talking with our artist friend, Yuka Imata, about the palette of colors various artists have used and how much I like to try different pigment groupings in various paintings. Yuka suggested that I try Velazquez's colors. Yuka had done two master copies of Velazquez's paintings at the Prado Museum in Spain and said how the process challenged her (even with her experience and breadth of painting knowledge).  She said she learned a lot by trying to use the materials that would have been available to him and the limited colors on his palette. Intrigued, I decided to do some research on the materials and technique of Velazquez.

Two specific books were invaluable for understanding his palette and the evolution of his process. I highly recommend both reference.

1) Examining Velazquez: https://www.amazon.com/Examining-Velazquez-Gridley-McKim-Smith/dp/0300036159/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526868170&sr=8-1&keywords=examining+velazquez

2) Velazquez: The Technique of Geniius, https://www.amazon.com/Velazquez-Technique-Genius-Jonathan-Brown/dp/0300101244/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526868248&sr=1-1&keywords=velazquez+%26+garrido

SELECTION OF THE WORK:

So many paintings are just so exquisite, it was hard to choose. I narrowed my favorites to

• Old Woman Frying Eggs (1618)
• Self Portrait (1640)
• Innocent X (1650)
• Infanta Maria Teresa (1651-2)
• The Water Seller of Seville (1623)
• The Infanta Margarita (1659)
• Portrait of Francisco Pacheco (1622)
• Juan de Pareja (1650)

I further narrowed down my choice to a portrait since that is what I am most comfortable with right now. If I like doing the copy, I can try a multi figure one in the future.

Many of the portraits are ornate so I ruled them out as choices for my first go at a Master Copy. The Self-Portrait and Juan de Pareja paintings are copied so often that I crossed them off the list for this Master Copy. I kept coming back to the portrait of Francisco Pacheco. It is magnificent.  It would present challenges because unlike many of his most famous paintings, it was executed in Seville, early in his career before he went to Madrid and became court painter. In this early period, Velazquez tended toward very detailed indirect painting with thin glazing rather than what he became known for - his brilliant direct paintings with the bravado brushwork and texture.

I aspire to learn glazing and certainly am excited to try to learn how to paint that gorgeous ruff collar.

So, I have my challenge!

Regarding his practice, when conservators have examined his paintings, they rarely find anything other than a sketchy outline drawing for placement. He was not in the habit of painting a grisaille (i.e., a full value monochromatic underpainting over which color would be imposed). He worked in the moment, working out the drawing and color on his palette and canvas. Once the initial stages were blocked in with color, he then applied glazes to achieve brilliancy, transparency and luminosity as well as impasto techniques to get the textural effects he desired.

In the many decision–making moments that I have had in planning this copy, I decided to be true to his temperament and follow his direct approach. I did not do a full detailed drawing first and transfer to the support.  During this process, I may do a drawing for its own sake because I find that drawing my subject in graphite or charcoal allows me to explore the features and get inside them so to speak.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The painting is dated 1622 and is housed at El Prado Museum in Madrid Spain.  Until recently, the subject of this painting was unknown and was simply referred to as "Man with a Goatee," While the Velazquez site with the Complete works does not identify it, El Prado Museum does identify the sitter as Francisco Pacheco, Velazquez's teacher, biographer and father in law.

https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/francisco-pacheco/98211755-529c-437e-bf3e-2f0689d7f73c

 PIGMENTS:

·  LEAD WHITE - Holbein Lead white.  

·  CALCITE- Rublev's Velazquez Medium. This is Calcite in Linseed Oil.

·  LEAD-TIN YELLOW LIGHT- Michael Harding

·  LEAD TIN YELLO LEMON - Michael Harding 

·  NAPLES YELLOW - Old Holland Genuine Naples

·  RAW SIENNA - Vasari 

·  ORANGE OCHRE - Rembrand

·  RED OCHRE - Michael Harding 

·  VERMILLION - Michael Harding  

·  CERULEAN BLUE - Gamblin (as a substitute for AZURITE)

·  COBALT - Gamblin Cobalt

·  BROWN OCHRE - Michael Harding 

·  RAW UMBER - Utrecht

·  IVORY BLACK - Rembrandt 

SUPPORT:

In his early years, Velazquez prepared his support using medium to coarse linen with low thread count but after his first trip to Italy he gradually switch to finer and finer linen with a high thread count to accommodate his zeal both for creating texture and for fluid bravado strokes. He used a traditional handmade gesso of animal glue, pigment and linseed oil.  While preparing my support in this traditional way would have been a nice learning experience, my real goal was learning the actual painting process so I am using a RayMar triple oil primed linen panel for expediency.

The actual Painting is roughly 14 in x 16 in but I chose a 12 in x 16 in. Again, it was for expediency.

FIRST SESSION: MAY 20, 2018

 I laid out my colors on my palette:

In his pre-Madrid phase, Velazquez used an earth pigment for the imprimatura (toned background) and often it was a red earth. He also would use ochre, azurite (blue-green pigment) and a little black. Later on, he started to use a white background, glazing on top of the pristine white to obtain the brilliancy and luminosity he strived for in the later periods of his life.

One

One: I started with a mixture of Brown and Red Ochre with a little Ivory Black to create the imprimatura (the tone for the canvas). Next I worked on the placement of the portrait on the support.

My feedback on some of the colors since many I have not tried before. 

The Ochres: The Brown and Red Ochres from Michael Harding are very rich. Working on a glass palette with a palette knife to mix, I was so surprised to hear the grittiness of the paint. You could hear it across the room! You could definitely tell that an earth pigment was in use! His Brown Ochre is a greyish greenish ochre with a hint of mustardy color and not very dark. Its value being like that of a normal yellow ochre. I could see using this color for obtaining a variety of neutrals or to grey down a more chromatic background or flesh mixture. For example, it would work well in turning the form away at the hair line as it recedes backwards from the face. Often one needs a bit of greenish earthy color in that area. The Red Ochre was also surprising in that it is a very strong pigment often overpowering in tinting strength. I’ll have to use it sparingly. I think it is like Venetian Red or English Red but I think Red Ochre has a more orange tinge that the former two which tend towards more pink undertones. I did put out the Orange Ochre but did not use it yet. It is a truly beautiful rich paint. Looking forward to working it into the painting.

I am really enjoying this painting. The colors are gorgeous and a joy to mix and play around. However, I am concentrating at this stage on getting the values in place. We are starting with a dark mid-tone for most of the canvas. I left the ruff collar area lighter than the rest so that when the various neutral lights are put in there will be some luminosity hopefully. Refining the drawing will continue to take place throughout all stages. Sorry about the mouth area. I did not paint it yet.

Two

Two: Blocked in the shadow color value for the ruff collar.  It is just a bit of cobalt blue, raw umber and lead white. I left it a light mid-tone.

Three

Three: Adding some colors for flesh.  I simply adore mixing the Genuine Vermilion, Lead Tin Lemon and Lead white. What gorgeous paints these are. I can certainly see why these colors were staples for portraiture.  For the lightest flesh, I switch out the Lead White for the Calcite. The Calcite adds brilliancy, transparency and fluidity to the paint without changing the color. For the greener areas, I am using the Brown Ochre, Red Ochre, the tiniest bit of cobalt with lead white. For the hair, mustache and darkest shadows, I am not using straight Ivory Black but rather Raw Umber, Cobalt and Ivory black and calcite for transparency. 

My feedback on some of the colors since many I have not tried before. 

Genuine Vermillion: I have always used Cadmium Red Light when I am painting using what I call my traditional portrait palette. Michael Harding’s Vermillion is fully pigmented as are all of his paints. I was surprised that a little of the Vermillion went such a long way since it is not supposed to have a very high tinting strength. In terms of warmth, I believe that is comparable to the Utrecht Cadmium Red Light that I normally use. When mixed with white, it may be ever so slightly pinker than the Cadmium. So far it mixes beautifully with the Lead Tin Yellows.

Lead Tin Yellow Light and Lemon:  These are very useful pigments. One can see that they could be used to replace white to a certain extent so that one leaves the white for truly the highlights or brightest lights.  The Lemon pigment is a definite yellow. When mixed with the Vermillion, a beautiful flesh color emerges pinkish and peachy while the Light version does not provide as strong a yellow tinge to the mixture. The two pigments are very opaque and knock down the Vermillion with little effort.  Supposedly, Velazquez used Naples Yellow as well but again, his “go-to” yellows were the Lead Tin Yellow and Ochres. His use of Naples Yellow was probably useful when he painted fabric and embroidery textures and also to mix his greens for landscapes. Unlike his contemporaries he did not have a green or purple on his palette. He mixes them from the colors in his limited palette.

At this stage, I am painting very intuitively to block in so there are constant adjustments to proportion, I am paying alot of attention to getting all of the planar features that characterize the subject.

Four

Four: Between stage three and four, I was working on the planes and color shifts and trying to maintain the sense of light. I spent an inordinate amount of time on the nose as there is a lot going on there with colors and values. I lost the proportion a bit as I will need to make the nose about 1/4 in longer (the muzzle area vertical length is fine. I just have to bring muzzle down 1/4in. He has a deep moustache!) and adjust the eye on our left which is a little taller and wider than I have it. Unfortunately, the photo of the painting is not as sharp as I'd like so that the color shifts are visible. 

I decided to stop here for the day's session.  I am loving this palette so far.