Velazquez or Mazo? Philip IV’s Court Painters

Interesting online talk from the Wallace Collection discussing the relationship between the work of Velazquez and his main pupil Juan Bautista Mazo.

The speakers, Natalia Muñoz-Rojas, The Wallace Collection and Patricia Manzano Rodríguez, Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art, Durham University, in conversation discussed what we know of Mazo’s life and art. I hadn’t thought I knew any Mazo works but realised during the talk that I did, I just hadn’t realised it, for example the National Gallery have portraits of Mariana of Spain and Don Adrian Pulido Pareja.

They talked about Mazo’s role as a copyist, which we now tend to look down on, but he was prized at the time for his copies of Velazquez’s great portraits of the Spanish royal family which everyone wanted to own. He also copied the great masters from the royal collection as noble families wanted to have their own versions.

I will certainly pay more attention to 17th century Spanish works in galleries and not dismiss pictures which are not Velazquez but look out for those by Mazo as well and think about the business of art at the Spanish royal court.

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