Diego Velaacute;zquez (Seacute;ville; 1599 ndash; Madrid; 1660)Diego Velaacute;zquez eacute;tait un artiste anticonformiste de legrave;re baroque. A lacirc;ge de vingt-quatre ans; Velaacute;zquez fit son premier voyage agrave; Madrid avec son professeur; Francisco Pacheco; rencontreacute; agrave; Seacute;ville.Rapidement; il se qualifia comme maicirc;tre peintre. Le roi Philippe IV remarqua son geacute;nie et le nomma peintre de cour en 1627. Peu apregrave;s; lartiste se lia damitieacute; avec Rubens agrave; Madrid. Il deacute;veloppa une approche plus reacute;aliste de lart religieux; ougrave; les personnages sont repreacute;senteacute;s de faccedil;on naturaliste et non pas ideacute;aliseacute;e. Son usage du clair-obscur rappelle les oeuvres du Caravage. Il fit au moins deux voyages agrave; Rome pour acheter de lart Renaissance et neacute;o-classique pour le roi. A Rome; il adheacute;ra agrave; lAcadeacute;mie de Saint-Luc en 1650; et fut eacute;lu chevalier de lordre de Santiago en 1658. Son imposante oeuvre de commande; La Reddition de Breda (vers 1634); montrait la deacute;faite des Hollandais devant les Espagnols; et ceacute;leacute;brait le triomphe militaire du regrave;gne de Philippe. Lartiste peignit le Pape Innocent X (1650) au cours de son second seacute;jour agrave; Rome; rappelant des oeuvres similaires de Raphaeuml;l et de Titien. Ses derniegrave;res oeuvres eacute;taient plus spontaneacute;es; mais toujours disciplineacute;es. Le point culminant de sa carriegrave;re fut le chef-doeuvre intituleacute; Les Meacute;nines (1656); lun des plus complexes portraits de groupe de lhistoire.Velaacute;zquez est reconnu comme le plus grand peintre espagnol de son siegrave;cle. Il influenccedil;a des peintres majeurs comme Goya et Manet.
#2273686 in eBooks 2015-07-13 2015-07-13File Name: B00CR6D04S
Review
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Close but no cigarBy Dave DawsonPoorly edited book by an individual who is very knowledgeable on the subject. Book would benefit greatly by the use of color photos (why black white in this day and age?).Fraught with misspellings and generally a good cure for insomnia. The info is there; but its not an enjoyable way to get it. Book has interesting testimonials from famous Gretsch owners. As a reference work; it stops too soon. Later company history and products not covered. The author obviously knows his subject; but a decent editor would have made a "ho-hum" book a real "Must Read".0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Travis Oliverinteresting0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Dated materialBy Branford MarsalisI was initially disappointed by the predominantly black and white photos. But given the fact that the company is so old; color photography just wasnt around yet. This brings me to my comment about the material being dated. The materials timeline seems to stop around the 70s. Thusly; there was no information about the new 6120 variants; Japanese reissues; Korean Jets; the 512x variants; or the work done by Fender FMIC. This is disappointing as these are the main points of something of a modern resurgence for Gretsch. Owners of contemporary Gretsch guitars may be somewhat disappointed as they wont find any information on their guitars here. Still; it does a good job of documenting the past.