Los Papeles de Velázquez John Phillips August 2007 A hand emerges from a lace cuff, pointed out tiny scraps of paper secreted and droops over the arm of a chair. It is in the corners of Velázquez’s Lances and painted impressionistically, and appears Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV. ‘These bits relaxed. Yet clutched between the thumb of paper serve no purpose in the paintings’, and forefinger, a folded sheet of paper twists she declared with mild indignation, ‘they awkwardly, contravenes perspective, and are blank’. Could I explain them? I shook pushes forward to petition the viewer. This my head. A tiny scrap of paper buried in a small dramatic detail, set against a velvet composition, we reasoned, might carry an backcloth, is a fragment of a full-length inscription or a signature, but blank slips portrait of Archbishop Fernando de Valdés. were either an enigma or an oversight. ‘Had The exactingly carefree brushstrokes and someone, perhaps Velázquez, over-painted inscription on the contorted sheet identify them?’ ‘Had he overlooked to sign these Velázquez as its painter. Whoever cut this paintings off?’ ‘Might similar fragments, fragment from the larger canvas, considering half-hidden in other paintings, provide more perhaps that value resided in its signature, clues?’ ‘What messages or meanings lay may have unintentionally revealed something buried in these unwritten documents?’ were hidden in the larger composition; the artist’s questions that we raised, but had no means aspiration inscribed on an imaginary sheet to answer. So, in the days that followed, I of paper. 2 resolved to investigate the artist through the My interest in Velázquez’s papers narrow prism of his papers. was sparked one evening by a friend, who, Velázquez was born into a world having recently returned from Madrid, overwhelmed by paper. But early seventeenth handed me two slides purchased from the century Spanish paintings, commissioned Prado. ‘I thought’, she said, ‘that these might almost exclusively by religious orders and interest you’. As I held them to the light, she rigorously controlled by the Inquisition, had 2 little space for this ubiquitous material. Its length portraits of the King and his brother restrained appearances were restricted to a Infante Don Carlos. The two men were devotee’s book, or a scroll from which the remarkably alike. They shared the family’s angels sing. Then suddenly, and without ugliness. Their attitudes, with feet apart and fanfare, Velázquez extended paper in new torsos slightly twisted to the left, were almost dimensions. Folded and torn, printed or identical.5 But there is one distinguishing blank, clinging to rocks, and piled on the feature. The Infante dangles a glove from floor, he turned paper into a petition, a his right hand. The King clasps a letter to prop and a clue to his subject’s station. He his side. Why, I wondered, was the most painted Francisco Lezcano holding playing powerful man on earth bereft of all regalia? cards, to symbolise his idleness; Menippus How, and why, could a single sheet of paper turning away from learning, and an open distinguish Philip from his brother, and book; and the bureaucrat El Primo, dwarfed endow the King with absolute authority? by an enormous tome. In other paintings, And what secrets were folded in those other important men hold single sheets of paper letters, painted by Velázquez, in the hands of in their hands. But, with the exception of Archbishop Fernando de Valdés, and Pope Mother Jerónima de la Fuente, who clasps Innocent X.6 a prayer book, and wealds a crucifix as if it In seeking answers to these puzzles, I was an axe, Velázquez never allowed paper explored the papers in Velázquez’s paintings, to fall into a woman’s hand.4 the documents that traced his life, and a Shortly after his appointment to the third strand that ties these things together, court of Philip IV, Velázquez painted full- but which, to English speakers, seems a less obvious attribute of paper. In English, stole, or traded their bodies in the streets. paper is a material thing. Its makers call the The city’s criminal fraternities, with their raw ingredient ‘stuff’. But in Spanish, papel apprentices and masters, registers and rules, (paper) also means an occupation, task or were parodies of medieval guilds. They held duty. It is akin to the English word ‘role’ depositories of loot, from which to pay ‘the which is derived from the ‘roll of paper’ on lawyer who defends us, the constable who which an actor’s lines are written. Roles, or tips us off, and the executioner who shows in Spanish papeles, create social cohesion, us mercy.’8 They held territories controlled legitimise behaviour, and sanction power. But by Jácaros (bullies) and rufos (ruffians), they are capricious, and subject to revision. who imposed beatings, murdered to order In a period spanning a little over four decades and politely opened doors to brothels. Velázquez rose from the streets of Seville, to Their specialist trades included cortabolsas become a knight, and an intimate member (cutpurses), duendes (sneak thieves), of the most powerful court in Europe. He capeadores (cloaksnatchers) and devotos was an artist who painted paper; a servant, (despoilers of images). Barriers between el turned courtier and politician. He married Hampa and legitimate society were porous. the arts to an authoritarian state ideology, Criminal slang (germanía) invaded popular yet laid the foundations of modernist speech, syphilis was rife, and religious painting. His papers offer insights into these houses offered sanctuary to anyone pursued apparent contradictions, and reveal how by secular authority. Consequently, the Velázquez reinvented himself, embezzled, cathedral courtyards, Corral de los Olmos lied, deceived and imaginatively displaced and Corral de las Naranjas, with their his King. cheap eating houses (bodegones) became In the mid-sixteenth century operational centres for Seville’s criminal Velázquez’s Portuguese grandparents societies.9 On special occasions, such a migrated to Seville: gateway to the Americas public execution, these fraternities would and city of opportunity for merchants, hire the finest mourning clothes, organise lawyers, artisans and thieves. Silver and triumphant processions of vagabonds, and gold poured in from the New World. chant litanies to their soon-to-be martyred Adventurers, priests and slavers poured out friends.0 Velázquez was born into the from the old. In a little over a century Seville centre of this Golden Age, where ambition was transformed from a small village on the and imagination were intimately entwined. great Guadalquivir River into the third most He grew up surrounded by the world of important city in Europe. It was a metropolis el Hampa, and the world of the well- of ostentatious display, where paper meant to-do. Two themes recur throughout his everything and nothing. Qualifications paintings; he sought to visually unite two could be easily assumed, or bought. The disparate worlds, and to elevate the status judiciary was notoriously corrupt, and of the lowliest of things. One theme runs legal judgements openly sold.7 A large throughout his career; Velázquez was a professional class of lawyers wangled and social climber. recorded all ‘legitimate’ transactions. Wills, The artist’s baptism, by Licenciado marriage contracts, property inventories, Gregorio de Salazar, was recorded in the powers of attorney, loans, official ordinances register of the Church of San Pedro, Seville, and petitions, claims and counterclaims on 6th June 599.11 On 7th October 611 before the Court and Inquisition, were all Juan Rodriguez signed an apprenticeship arranged in legal jargon, and set down on document for this child, declaring that paper. Velázquez was a child of this world. His father was a notary. ‘as a legitimate father and administrator who He also knew another world; el is for the good of Diego Velázquez, my son Hampa (the underworld). Seville’s rapid of more or less 12 years … I place to learn expansion attracted countless migrants from the art of painting with Francisco Pacheco, the countryside. Many, deracinated and master of the said art and neighbour of the unabsorbed by legal commerce, begged, said city in the collection of San Miguel 4 for a time and space of six years… that status of his craft. He accepted the child you will teach him the said, your art, well, Diego as an apprentice, and on 4th March and completely, following what you know, 67, ‘in the presence of Pedro del Caprio without concealing anything.’12 public scribe and familiar (member) of the holy office of the Inquisition´ he formally Painting in early seventeen-century honoured his agreements, declaring ´that Seville was a trade of low social-standing. the full examination certificate be given to It ranked alongside cobbler or sieve-maker. him (Diego) along with the licence to use his But Francisco Pacheco was ambitious. Born said art in this city and in whatever places in 564 to a humble family and christened and parts.13 Francisco Pérez y Rio, he assumed the name of an uncle, a respected local cleric, Canon Shortly after this ceremony, Velázquez Pacheco. He joined literary discussion married Pacheco’s daughter, but rejected his circles and collected books on art. He master’s style. In a move unprecedented in slavishly copied classical models, and gained Spanish art, Velázquez trained his brushes prestigious commissions. He established an on el Hampa, and painted lowlifes, eating, important studio, became a member of the carousing, and counting out their coins.4 Inquisition, and dreamed of elevating the Paper is absent from these paintings. The 5 subjects have no need of it. But stacks of and transcribed the whores and villains of paper stand behind them. They are the Cervantes, from prose to paint.