The children's book of art . anly andsturdy looking a little fellow as ever bestrode apony. He was but six years old when Velasquezpainted the picture here reproduced. Certainly hewas not fettered and cramped and prevented fromtaking exercise like his little sisters. The princessesof Spain were dressed in wide skirts, spread outover hoops and hiding their feet, from the time theycould walk. The tops of the dresses were as stiffas corselets, and one wonders how the little girlswere able to move at all. As they grew older thehoops became wider and wider, until in one pictureof a grown-up princes
The children's book of art . anly andsturdy looking a little fellow as ever bestrode apony. He was but six years old when Velasquezpainted the picture here reproduced. Certainly hewas not fettered and cramped and prevented fromtaking exercise like his little sisters. The princessesof Spain were dressed in wide skirts, spread outover hoops and hiding their feet, from the time theycould walk. The tops of the dresses were as stiffas corselets, and one wonders how the little girlswere able to move at all. As they grew older thehoops became wider and wider, until in one pictureof a grown-up princess, the skirts are broader thanthe whole height of her body. Stringent Courtetiquette forbade a princess to let her feet be seen,but so odd may such conventions be, that it wasnevertheless thought correct for the Queen toride on horseback astride. It is from the canvases of Velasquez that weknow the Spanish Royal Family and the aspect ofthe Court of Philip IV. as though we had livedthere ourselves. The painter was born in the. Don Balthazar the picture by Velasquez, in the Prado Museum, Madrid VELASQUEZ 155 south of Spain in the same year as Van Dyck, andseven years earlier than Rembrandt. To paint theportrait of his sovereign was the ambition of theyoung artist. When his years were but twenty-four the opportunity arrived, and Philip was sopleased with the picture that he took the youngman into his household, and said that no one elseshould ever be allowed to paint his welcomed with gratified joy the prospectof that life-long proximity, although neither hisearnings nor his station at all matched the servicehe rendered to his sovereign. As the years wenton he was paid a little better, but his days andhours were more and more taken up with dutiesat Court, and his salary was always in arrears. Hecould not even reserve his own private time for hisart, but as he waxed higher in the estimation of theKing, the supervision of Court ceremonies, entrustedto
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectart, bookyear1909
