Velázquez. the Complete Works - by José López-Rey & Odile Delenda (Hardcover)

About the Book

This catalogue raisonné of Velázquez's complete works features brand new photography of recently restored paintings. In extra-large format and with numerous details, and a fold-out, the book celebrates the painter's insight, humanity, and brilliant technique.

Book Synopsis

Manet called him "the greatest painter of all." Picasso was so inspired by his masterpiece Las Meninas that he painted 44 variations of it. Francis Bacon painted a study of his portrait of Pope Innocent X. Monet and Renoir, Corot and Courbet, Degas and Dalí...for so many champions of art history, the ultimate soundboard was--and remains--Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660).

This updated catalog raisonné brings together Velázquez's complete works, jaw-droppingly reproduced in extra-large format, with a selection of enlarged details and brand new photography of recently restored paintings, achieved through the joint initiative of TASCHEN and Wildenstein. The book's dazzling images are accompanied by insightful commentary from José López-Rey on Velázquez's interest in human life and his equal attention to all subjects, from an old woman frying eggs to a pope or king, as well as his commitment to color and light, which would influence the Impressionists over two centuries later.

Review Quotes

"This volume is impressively comprehensive and comprehensible, richly illustrated and thoroughly covetable as an object. Any art library that aspires to completeness should have a copy of Velázquez: The Complete Works."
-- "Cassone Magazine"

"Here you have art on art, as only the publisher of publisher's can offer!"-- "Force One"

About the Author

The author: Jose Lopez-Rey (1905-1991) taught Italian Renaissance at the University of Madrid and worked as an art advisor for the Spanish Ministry of Education. Before the end of the Spanish Civil War, he emigrated to the USA, where he resumed his teaching career at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York. In 1973 he was awarded emeritus status. Lopez-Rey was a corresponding member of the Hispanic Society of America and a consultant and contributor to several international art journals, including the Gazette des Beaux Arts" and Art News."