DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ

Our work, identified as Velázquez, Philip IV Hunting Wild Boar — The Preparatory Study, constitutes an exceptional and decisive testimony to the creative process of Diego Velázquez. It reveals an essential stage prior to the monumental version today preserved at the National Gallery in London. Our painting demonstrates forcefully that the artist did indeed conceive fully accomplished prototypes, elaborated directly, without preparatory drawing on the canvas, for his large compositions of royal commission.

The technical, stylistic, and structural characteristics of our study are fully coherent with Velázquez’s manner of painting around 1634–1635. It is historically established that Velázquez produced preparatory studies for his major compositions: the inventory of his studio, drawn up after his death on 11 August 1660, explicitly bears witness to this. Two sketches are mentioned there: one identified as a study of the King of Spain Philip IV on horseback, the other associated with the equestrian portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos. These preparatory works were intended for the monumental paintings (1634–1635) executed for the Sala de los Reinos of the Buen Retiro and today at the Prado. The existence of these prototypes demonstrates that Velázquez relied on complete studies as a creative foundation for his prestigious works.

In this lineage, Velázquez – Philip IV Hunting Wild Boar — The Preparatory Study, appears as an exceptionally well-preserved example of this practice — the first to have been found. Its energetic and spontaneous facture bears witness to a pictorial writing characteristic of the painter in those years. The atmospheric effects, particularly in the sky and in the vegetation, rest on light glazes and very diluted pigments. In our study, the sky is laid down first, forming the foundation of the entire composition. The landscape is then built with rapid touches, and only afterwards are the human and animal figures painted. This sequence of work corresponds perfectly to Velázquez’s operating method at that time. His figures emerge more by juxtaposition of colored masses than by precise linear contours.

The comparison between our preparatory study and the final version of the Boar Hunt at the National Gallery reveals decisive differences. In the definitive painting, the landscape appears more disciplined, manifestly elaborated in the studio. In our study, the natural masses are freer and more impressionistic, creating a sense of spontaneous and immediate execution. The tree trunk on the left was first painted thin and twisted, then thickened in a second state. Such adjustments belong to a creative hand modifying its own visual thought; a copy, in contrast, reproduces without correcting. The Tela Real, the circular enclosure, that structures the hunt, is a major indicator of this creative process. Open in the preparatory study, it becomes closed in the definitive version at the National Gallery. The incisions visible through the still-wet pictorial layer bear witness to its initial construction. Infrared imagery shows that the circular form precedes the figures. The figures also present numerous pentimenti and variations in their gestures, in their positions within the painting, as well as in their clothing. On the left, the dark figure was reduced after having been painted higher. The figure in the tree adopts an inverted position in the final version. In the centre, a horseman presents a first head, then elevated. All this proves that Philip IV Hunting Wild Boar — The Preparatory Study, is a space of active experimentation, of which the final version constitutes the accomplishment.

Philip IV Hunting Wild Boar — The Preparatory Study, contains an essential characteristic: the marginal extension of the landscape. The composition was initially painted on a smaller canvas, which was then enlarged by approximately 1.5 cm on each side — a practice attested in several works by Velázquez, notably in the painting Baltasar Carlos on horseback. The presence of old copy of Velázquez – Philip IV Hunting Wild Boar - The Preparatory Study, in the Wallace Collection confirms its status as an original: a copy necessarily presupposes a prototype: our painting.

Everything converges so that our study Philip IV Hunting Wild Boar — The Preparatory Study be a work by Velázquez.

• Pictorial Quality
• Spatial organization
• Fluidity of the brushstroke
• Pentimenti and variations
• Sky–landscape–figures sequence
• Scientific analyses
• Extension of the support
• Historical documentation

Velázquez, Philip IV Hunting Wild Boar — The Preparatory Study, constitutes the material proof that a complete preparatory version preceded the Tela Real at the National Gallery, London. It obliges us to rethink the creative process of the master: his great compositions of royal commission result from a progressive, methodical, and thoughtful elaboration.