Thursday, November 20, 2014

The Forge of Vulcan


This painting was created by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez in 1630 in Rome in his first trip to Italy with oil painting above a canvas. Its measure is of 223cmX290cm. You can find it now in the Prado Museum, in Madrid.
The God Apollo met Vulcan to tell him that Venus, his wife and Goddess of the Beauty was unfaithful and she was lying him with Mars (God of the war). This is the moment of the shouting, that’s why the other  men who are with Vulcan have that expression, it's as they were surprised, because actually they are. The fact of represent the infidelity is so characteristic of Spanish painters of the Golden Century. When he received the news he got jaleous and furious.
Now, I’m going to tell you a secret about this painting. On the right down corner, you can see like a rectangular shaped Stone. Well, it contains a supposed secret self-portrait which Velazquez made of himself. That’s because he went to Italy and tried to copy the style of Michelanchello. Velazquez prove that Michellangello felt more a sculptor tan a painter. In the Final Judgement, Michelangello made a self portrait in a piece of an animal skin so Velazquez copied him (you can see it better but now you know where it is). This is not the only self portrait he made. He made another one also in the Meninas


(Source: by me)

This painting was made in the Baroque because the technique used in this paiting is the use of foreshortened and realistic figures because people aren’t looking at the receptor so this creates realism, Velazquez used oil painting, warm colours in Apollo and in the clothes, there’s a lot of contrast and shadows (chiaroscuro). If you look at the photo, it contains a lot of figures:

And finally, this is a portrait of Velazquez.


1 comment:

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Hello again,

As in the previous project, include all the sources at the end, except for the ones of the images. I 've made the images bigger to watch them better.

These are the corrections:


-...oil painting on canvas. Its measures are 223cm x290cm. You can find it now in El Prado Museum, in Madrid.

- The God Apollo met Vulcan(o)... Erase the o in brackets

-...that’s why the other men whot are with Vulcan have that expression, it’s as if they were surprised, because actually they are. The fact of representing the infidelity is so characteristic of Spanish painters of the Golden Century. When he received the news he got jealous and furious.


-... a secret about this painting. On the right down corner,

-... secret self-portrait which Velazquez made of himself. That’s because he went to Italy and tried to copy the style of Michelangello. Velazquez proved that Michellanchello felt more a(n) sculptor than a painter. In the Final Judgement, Michelangello made a self- portrait in an animal skin, so Velazquez copied him


-...This is not the only self- portrait he made. He made another one also in the Meninas

-... because the technique used in this painting is the use of foreshortened and realistic figures because people (there) aren’t looking at the receptor, so this creates realism,


You could have done a more detailed description of the painting: the expressions of the figures, their positions, what they are doing… And you could also have talked about Caravaggio’s influence, which is evident in the use of light and colour.

Your mark is 7.5. Good night.