Diego de Silva y Velázquez (Seville, 1599 – Madrid, 1660) is undoubtedly one of the greatest geniuses of artistic painting, his palette being one of the richest and most powerful in our Western pictorial panorama. He also had one of the most acute, critical and human point of view on the cultural context and the world around him.
Velázquez is a creator not only of images but of a multifaceted discourse that covers very different fields of the cultural, intellectual and also ideological horizon of the world in which he operates and the History of that world.
Velázquez was also a man very closely related to Power, since his professional life -that is, his creative life- developed to a large extent (especially in the maturity of his splendor as an artist) in the immediacy of Power.
Thus, it is inevitable to associate the figure of Velázquez with King Philip IV, known in his time as the “Planet King”. Kings, Infants, Princesses, and other figures of the highest nobility of 17th Century Spain would submit themselves to the scrutinizing gaze, observation, and analysis of Velázquez as the patient submits to the accurate hand of the surgeon. In this way, Velázquez’s painting is one of the best ways and means for understanding the aesthetics and the discourse of Power in Baroque Spain and Europe.
Therefore, with this lecture we shall approach to the aesthetic, creative and cultural discourse and works of Diego Velázquez in relation to the field of Power in his time, which is one of the keys and one of the pillars of the art of this Andalusian genius, which will help us to understand at the same time some of the essential keys to the society, economy and politics of Spain and Europe in the 17th Century, a time as interesting as it was turbulent.
That is why we have titled this lecture as “Velázquez. Painter of Power”, since we shall try to get a closer approach to the keys to the aesthetics of Power in Baroque Society as they appear interpreted, expressed, understood and exposed in the art of this Sevillian genius who was Diego Velázquez: we shall travel through Power with Diego de Silva y Velázquez exploring his work, and we shall get closer to the image of Power as presented to us by this master of light, color and volume.
About Manuel Parodi
PhD. in History and archaeologist. Member of ICOMOS-Spain. Corresponding academic of the Andalusian Academy of History and of the Italian School of Archaeology of Cartago, member of the Governing Board of the Illustrious College of Doctors and Graduates in Philosophy and Letters and Sciences of Seville and Huelva. “Associate Historian” of the Foundation of the 500 Years of the Villa Rica de la Veracruz A.C. (Mexico), member of the Association of Historians and Archaeologists of Cartago (Tunisia) and of the Institute of Ceuta Studies. Professor in the Masters of Historical and Archaeological Heritage and of Tourism and of the Aula de Mayores of the University of Cádiz, guest lecturer in various Spanish and foreign universities. Director of the History, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage magazine “Gárgoris”. Coordinator of the Office of the Commemoration of the First Round the World Trip of the City Council of Sanlúcar de Barrameda (2015 to 2019).
Manuel is one of our favourite local lecturers. He has lectured to us many times before for instance on Cádiz The Phoenician western Pearl Gadir, The Magellan-Elcano Expedition 1519-1522, Phoenicians on the Costa del Sol, The Vikings in Al Andalus, Losing Freedom, the Tragical end of the Spanish Revolution in 1823.
