Mayor’s Foreword

Álvarez, Juan Ignacio Zoido

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Mayor’s Foreword

Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez

The Young Velázquez: The Education of the Virgin Restored

~Between June 1 and June 20, 1620, Mother Jerónima de la Fuente was staying in the Sevillian convent of Santa Clara while waiting to set sail for Manila, where she was to found a new convent of Santa Clara. During this time, our most brilliant and world-famous artist, Diego Velázquez, visited the Sevillian convent and made a portrait of her,...

Author

Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez

PublisherYale University Art Gallery

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00167.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19535

Mayor’s Foreword

Between June 1 and June 20, 1620, Mother Jerónima de la Fuente was staying in the Sevillian convent of Santa Clara while waiting to set sail for Manila, where she was to found a new convent of Santa Clara. During this time, our most brilliant and world-famous artist, Diego Velázquez, visited the Sevillian convent and made a portrait of her, precisely in the space where we are now hosting this exhibition.

My words here today, besides expressing my elation, express gratitude. First, for having been able to bring the Education of the Virgin to Seville, from the prestigious institution Yale University; undoubtedly, for scholars of Velázquez this has been one of the most gratifying surprises and discoveries in recent years. Second, because one of the first paintings to emerge from Velázquez’s brush is returning, even if only for a few months, to the city where he was born and trained, and where he left the first marks of his genius and mastery—which, in works like this, are expressed in the intimacy that results from the naturalistic details and from his training with Francisco Pacheco and others. There is also another significant circumstance: the scant distance between the convent of Santa Clara and the convent of Santa Ana, of the Shod Carmelites, for which this canvas was probably painted, precisely in the years when Velázquez was embarking upon his first works as a young artist, which testify to early naturalism and are of the same stature as works that were being produced around the period between 1617 and 1620 in European capitals such as Rome and Antwerp.

I would also like to express my gratitude for the decisive collaboration of Banco Santander, and especially the perseverance of Paloma Botín and Salvador Medina; keenly aware of the significance and novelty of this new work in Velázquez’s brilliant oeuvre, they took a gamble on collaborating with Yale on the restoration, study, and publication of the scientific results arising from the subsequent research. This work has taken over two years and is being presented in Seville as something truly exceptional, as much for researchers as for the general public, disseminating the results of the scientific work, which is pivotal for all of society, and making it a part of the advancement of knowledge. Because of this, the people of Seville will be able to enjoy an emblematic work that was painted in our city, and scholars who specialize in Velázquez’s paintings have another incentive to dig deeper into his early work, especially with regard to his technique: One of the objectives of the exhibition is to present the canvas precisely in the context in which it was painted, together with all of the technical findings gleaned during the process of restoration and that demonstrate its authorship and intrinsic quality. To this end, the exhibition shows what Velázquez saw and learned from his model, the Education of the Virgin by Juan de Roelas, generously lent by the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, as well as what he was also assimilating from all of the innovations contained in the Holy Family by Luis Tristán, on loan from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts—an essential touchstone for studies of both early naturalism and Velázquez’s artworks. Along with these works we are also exhibiting Velázquez’s Saint Ildefonso Receiving the Chasuble from the Virgin, owned by the City Council of Seville, in an exciting meeting of two masterpieces by the Sevillian painter.

But none of this would have been possible without the active participation of Jock Reynolds, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale University Art Gallery, and Laurence Kanter, Chief Curator and the Lionel Goldfrank III Curator of European Art, who understood the importance of publicly exhibiting and recognizing the results in our city for both Velázquez and Seville. Their visit to our city hall and their enthusiasm for the project from the beginning, back in August 2011, have been among the main factors guaranteeing that the dream would become a reality with the findings we are now presenting, which highlight the restoration work carried out by Carmen Albendea and Ian McClure. Thanks to all of them for sharing their expertise with all of us, and for collaborating on this exciting project, which has made it possible for the Education of the Virgin to shine with its own light, for the study and delight of all lovers of art and culture, in the city where it was conceived, designed, and painted. I should extend my appreciation to the City Council Cultural Representative María del Mar Sánchez Estrella and the team at the Instituto de la Cultura y las Artes de Sevilla (ICAS) for their efforts and dedication to this project, which will allow the city to become, once again, a prominent bastion of cultural initiatives of international significance.

Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez
Mayor of Seville

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