Velazquez’s Techniques and Goya’s Subjects

(Left) Diego Velazquez, Pablo de Valladolid, c. 1635. Oil on Canvas. Museo Prado, Madrid.

(Right) Eduoard Manet, Mme. V… in the Costume of an Espada, 1862. Oil on Canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Notice the similarities between the dark and light colors of the garments. The black and white make a dramatic contrast. The plain background of Velazquez's Pablo de Valladolid translates as a flat background with a bullfight scene in Manet's work.

Manet’s Spanish influences are apparent in many of his works. Strikingly, Manet incorporated the selected ideas that he liked from other artists to recreate “original” works of his own. Taking a closer look at Mme. V… in the Costume of an Espada, Manet has joined selected elements from his Spanish “teachers,” Velazquez and Goya in this work. Mme. Victorine’s espada costume, unlike the ballet characters, is black, rose, and white, which contrast sharply. Manet borrowed this contrasting technique from Velazquez, the master of dramatic colors.

The picador killing the bull in the background is almost a direct copy from Goya’s The Art of Bullfighting. Interestingly enough, Manet did not put the “espada” in the bullfight, but rather left the character in the front posing foolishly. Though he copied these elements from the Spanish masters, the composition does not equal a representation of an authentic bullfight. The dramatic color quality added to “espada” with the bullfight scene- backdrop produced a theatrical sense to the bullfight work. Manet’s copying did not help create authentic or modern works of bullfighting. His trip to Spain solidified his production of modern bullfights.

(Left) Eduoard Manet, Detail from Mme. V… in the Costume of an Espada, 1862. Oil on Canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

(Right) Francisco Goya, "The Spirited Moor Gazul Is the First to Spear Bulls According to Rules" from the Art of Bullfighting (Tauromachia), 1816. Print. The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England.