September 18 - January 15, 2023
From the Meadows Museum:
“Opening September 18, 2022, the Meadows Museum, SMU will present a Masterpiece in Residence exhibition focused on The Frick Collection’s portrait King Philip IV of Spain (1644), by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez. The exceptional loan will be on display with the three paintings by Velázquez from the Meadows Museum’s collection in an exciting, focused exhibition of portraiture.
The portrait will travel from The Frick Collection in New York City to Dallas as part of the ongoing loan program organized by the Meadows, featuring some of the most important works of Spanish art in U.S. collections. The portrait will be displayed with Meadows Museum’s own three paintings by this influential artist. The Meadows’s bust-length Portrait of King Philip IV (c. 1623–24), likely Velázquez’s first portrait of his king and patron, will be joined by The Frick’s 1644 portrait, which is considered among the most important Spanish paintings in an American collection. The Meadows’s Portrait of Queen Mariana (c. 1656) and Female Figure (Sibyl with Tabula Rasa) (c. 1648), offer further evidence of his artistic growth over his career and will be installed in the same gallery as the two portraits of the king.
The portrait in the Meadows Museum collection features just the bust of King Philip, in stark black clothing unadorned by jewels and decoration. He is gazing directly at the viewers, one of the most powerful men in Europe painted with extraordinary restraint and tiny, deliberate, precise brushstrokes.
In contrast, in The Frick Collection’s portrait, Velázquez’s brushstrokes stand out on the dark, undefined background, while King Philip’s restrained expression turns toward his audience. His face is painted in nearly invisible brushwork with incredibly fine detail. The colors of his clothing, in vivid red, white, black, and gray capture the attention of any viewer. He firmly grasps his baton, and his other hand holds a black hat decorated with a vibrant red feather. A richly decorated sword is at his waist.
The differences in execution between the two portraits of the king painted just over two decades apart highlight the evolution of Velázquez’s technique and his mastery of looser, more fluid brushwork, which demonstrates the impact of his study of Venetian masters like Titian, both in the Spanish royal collections and in Italy, as he developed a style all his own. No doubt the evolution of the relationship between painter and sitter, which began early in Philip’s reign, also had an impact on the later portrait, which was produced in only three days in a makeshift studio just 20 miles from the siege of Lérida.
This exhibition has been organized by the Meadows Museum and is funded by a generous gift from The Meadows Foundation. “
Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University
5900 Bishop Boulevard
Dallas, 75275-0357 TX
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