| Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Diego Velázquez |
| Year | 1630 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Movement | Baroque |
| Dimensions | 223 cm × 290 cm (87+3⁄4 in × 114+1⁄8 in) |
| Location | Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain |
Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan (Spanish: Apolo en la Fragua de Vulcano), sometimes referred to as Vulcan's Forge, is an oil painting by Diego de Velázquez completed after his first visit to Italy in 1629. Critics agree that the work should be dated to 1630, the same year as his companion painting Joseph's Tunic. It appears that neither of the two paintings were commissioned by the king, although both became part of the royal collections within a short time. The painting became part of the collection of the Museo del Prado, in Madrid, in 1819.[1][2]
Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan has been cited as one of the most important works from Velázquez's first trip to Italy[3] and "one of his most successful compositions with regard to the unified, natural interaction of the figures."[4]
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Velázquez, Vulcan's Forge
Transcription
(piano playing) Dr. Zucker: We're in Madrid at the Prado and we're looking at a Velazquez. A large painting, this is the Vulcan Forge. It's been described by some of our historian's as a kind of burlesque actually. Dr. Harris: Here's Apollo, here we can see the God of the Sun and the God of Poetry with the halo on his head on the left who's here telling Vulcan, Dr. Zucker: A suit of armor. Dr. Harris: ... and is very hard at work all day and Apollo has just come to tell him that his wife, Venus, has been having an affair with Mars, the God of War. Dr. Zucker: Now, just look at the attitudes of those two faces, forget about the rest of the painting for just a moment. Apollo, his back arches, his head is up, he's rather full of himself actually. Dr. Harris: Yeah. Dr. Zucker: As he has this very powerful message to, sort of, almost scold Vulcan with. Vulcan looks horrified and dangerous. He's holding this red hot metal in one hand, he's got a hammer in the other and it looks like he's ready to just strike anything. Dr. Harris: Look at his body, he's got this beautiful torso, muscles, and these ripples and his abdomen, but his face has that kind of Carvaggio feel Dr. Zucker: Of this world. Dr. Harris: ... beautiful. He's got this ideally beautiful body, in fact all of the male figures have ideal bodies as though Velazquez was looking at Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture and looking at the artists of the Renaissance, maybe Michelangelo and also looking at the art of Carvaggio. Dr. Zucker: But the hands are different aren't they? Dr. Harris: They are. Dr. Zucker: They're not so idealized ... Dr. Zucker: ... as you pointed out, in fact the heads are incredibly naturalistic even though they're painted in a fairly loose manner. Dr. Harris: There's this conflict in this painting between this kind of realism and down to earthness in the figures and what they're doing, and their gestures and the emotions that they convey, but also this sense of that they're kind of standing like classical sculptures and their bodies look like classical sculptures. Dr. Zucker: Here's the thing is that I don't think the French or the Italian's would have rendered an important mythological subject with this much, almost comedy involved, right? Dr. Harris: Yeah. Dr. Zucker: Look at the man who is second from the right, he looks sort of astonished, literally absurd. There is this kind of direct human, sort of sense of conflict and humor that seems very debasing in some way, really not treating the classical with the honor that it's usually accorded. Dr. Harris: At the same time, though, this looks like an academic exercise because we have the three male figures in the center shown from three different points of view. The one on the left, Vulcan, shown frontal. The next one shown from behind, the third one shown in profile and the last figure on the right shown foreshortened and coming out toward us. Dr. Zucker: Those first three almost like ... if they were female figures, like the three Graces. Dr. Harris: Exactly, it looks very orderly and composed and balanced and a little bit like a performance for maybe possible future patrons. I mean, here's Velazquez, he's still relatively young, he's made a trip to Rome at the urging of Rubens and perhaps demonstrating his skill, as an artist who can paint the male nude. Dr. Zucker: It certainly shows an artist who's willing to reinvent or push the boundaries of the ways in which stories are told. (piano playing)
Subject
The painting depicts the moment when the god Apollo, identifiable by the crown of laurel on his head, visits Vulcan, who is found making weapons for war. The god Apollo tells Vulcan that his wife, Venus, is having an affair with Mars, the god of war. For this reason, the other figures in the room are looking in surprise at the god who has just appeared before them, some of them even opening their mouths to indicate surprise.[2]
Velázquez was inspired to create this work by an engraving by Antonio Tempesta, modifying it greatly and centering the narrative action on the arrival of Apollo, using a classical baroque style.[1] It emphasises contemporary interest in nude figures, influenced by Greco-Roman statuary and the classical movement of Guido Reni.[2] The frieze-style method of composition could also come from Reni. On the other hand, the clear shades of the figure of Apollo are reminiscent of Guercino.
This work was created in Rome without commission at the request of the painter Peter Paul Rubens who had also visited Spain in 1629. Velázquez painted two large canvases in the house of the Spanish ambassador. These two canvases formed a pair and were brought back to Spain with his luggage: Joseph's Tunic and Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan.
Analysis
The subject is taken from Roman mythology, specifically from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Velázquez interpreted the scene into a strictly human version, with contemporary figures. Apollo is seen wearing a toga which leaves his torso exposed to view. Vulcan, in this picture, is just a blacksmith, as are his helpers, who are men from the village who know the trade. Vulcan is staring at him in astonishment after having heard the news of his wife's adultery with the god Mars, for whom he is forging armour at this very moment. The cave in which the blacksmith god forges weapons for the other deities in this painting is shown as a smithy, similar to those Velázquez could have seen in Spain or in Rome. With characteristic mastery Velázquez also painted a variety of objects which would be commonly found in a forge.
Velázquez interest in nudes is not surprising, and evidence of this appears as early as his arrival in Madrid in 1623, although the appearance of them in his works increased after his first visit to Italy in the years 1629–1631.
During his Italian journey he was also influenced by Venetian painting, which can be seen in his use of colour, for example in Apollo's striking orange toga. From his travels through Rome he was influenced by Michelangelo to create extremely large and strong figures. The musculature of Vulcan and the other figures that surround him is not insignificant; they are athletic figures who show off their strength without modesty, even standing in positions that show off their muscles to greater effect.
On the other hand, Velázquez was always obsessed with achieving depth in his works. In this case he started to use what is known as "space sandwiching", that is, putting some figures in front of others so that the sensation of depth exists in the viewers' minds. In this way he portrays depth, rather than just using the view through the window seen at the back of the room. As in many of his works, the photographic quality of the objects (mostly metallic: armour, the anvil, the hammers and the red-hot iron itself) that appear in the painting which show realism taken to the extreme. At the back, in the upper right, various objects can be seen on a shelf which form a still life by themselves, which is characteristic of Velázquez' early works.
As a Spanish painter his characters are ordinary people, not idealised as in Italian works. Vulcan could even be said to be quite ugly, and Apollo's face, despite being surrounded by an aura which differentiates him from the rest, is also not idealized.[5]
Painting materials
Part of pigments used by Velázquez in this painting[6] have changed their colours so the canvas lost its original color balance. The wreath of Apollo was originally painted green by mixing (blue) azurite, yellow lake and yellow ochre. The lake pigment is not very stable and so the present color of the wreath is almost blue. The color of the loin cloths changed to flat dark brown while the flesh colour mainly containing yellow ochre, vermilion and azurite remained unchanged.[7]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Vulcan's Forge". On-line gallery. Museo Nacional del Prado. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
- ^ a b c Velázquez: (exhibition). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1989. p. 286. ISBN 9780870995545., see pp. 110-115.
- ^ Bailey, Anthony (2011). Velázquez and The Surrender of Breda: The Making of a Masterpiece. Henry Holt and Company. p. 82. ISBN 978-1429973779.
- ^ "Vulcan's Forge". Museo Nacional del Prado. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
- ^ a b "Velázquez's Vulcan's Forge". Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Archived from the original on October 9, 2014. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
- ^ McKim-Smith, Gridley; Andersen-Bergdoli, Greta; Newman, Richard (1988). Examining Velazquez. Yale University.
- ^ Diego Velázquez, 'Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan, Colourlex
Bibliography
- La pintura en el barroco. José Luis Morales y Marín. Espasa Calpe S.A. 1998
- Museo del Prado. Pintura española de los siglos XVI y XVII. Enrique Lafuente Ferrari. Aguilar S.A. 1964
- Cirlot, L. (dir.), Museo del Prado II, Col. «Museos del Mundo», Tomo 7, Espasa, 2007. ISBN 978-84-674-3810-9, pp. 24–25
- McKim-Smith, Gridley; Andersen-Bergdoli, Greta; Newman, Richard (1988). Examining Velazquez. Yale University.
- Velázquez and The Surrender of Breda: The Making of a Masterpiece. Anthony Bailey. Henry Holt and Company. 2011
External links
- Velázquez , exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan (see index)
- Diego Velázquez, Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan, Colourlex
This page was last edited on 20 November 2023, at 22:27