The Theology of Painting
by Tom Piatak
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Over at NRO, Kathryn Lopez is complaining that Google is celebrating the 409th anniversary of the birth of Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, rather than commemorating such events as the 40th anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s assassination or the 64th anniversary of D-Day.
Google is honoring Velázquez by partially reproducing his greatest painting, Las Meninas, on its web page. The choice of Las Meninas is appropriate in light of Lopez’s complaint; Luca Giordano described that work as “the theology of painting,” and these days the denizens of NRO all too often display little interest in theology, painting, or anything other than pop culture or contemporary politics.
I would of course agree with Lopez that D-Day was a great display of American heroism, but complaining that Google is remembering Velázquez instead strikes me as bizarre. Part of what makes America great is that we are part of a great civilization, of which Velázquez is one of the towering figures. If we cannot honor and remember those who contributed to that civilization before America was born, it is hard to see what will stop Western civilization from eventually descending into barbarism.
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1 Comment by Bill Wilder on 6 June 2008:
I noticed the rendering on Google’s page, but (in a sign of my Philistinism) was ignorant of the significance even when I scrolled over to see the indication of de Velazquez. (Maybe I belong over at NRO!)
Thanks, Tom, for the insight. (NPR is doing enough RFK stuff for everybody–as will all the “all news” networks. As for D-Day, to put it mildly, it’s covered enough.)
2 Comment by CM Collins on 6 June 2008:
Wow! You can even make out the cross of the Order of Santiago!
3 Comment by Tom Piatak on 6 June 2008:
The cross was very important to Velazquez. In order to be a member, one had to be of noble blood (on both sides, if I recall correctly) and there was some question about the nobility on Velazquez’ father’s side. When he was in Rome doing his masterful portrait of Innocent X, Velazquez sought to enlist the aid of the papacy in gaining admission to the Order of Santiago. When he finally became a member, it was a source of great pride to him, which is one of the reasons it is thought he painted himself wearing the emblem of the order in Las Meninas.
4 Comment by Little John on 6 June 2008:
Tom,
I am amused by the little girl in this painting getting ready ( perhaps ?) to sit on the large but tired dog. I wish those folks at NRO had some pets they could enjoy other than assassinations and war.
I really appreciate you keeping us abreast of their never ending struggle of trying to surge ahead with their head in the sand. Maybe someone should donate an Ostrich as a mascot for their cause. Or better yet, a chameleon ? No wonder they hate artists who know all about changing colors given a particular light.
5 Comment by Mike Ezzo on 6 June 2008:
Disinterest in the arts and humanities is one of the salient phenomena amongst contemporary conservative and/or Christian people. Take just literature for example. We, for the most part, either read the same popular novels everyone else reads, or no fiction at all. I am often surprised when I search for out-of-print books on the internet and I come across names (from the 50’s and 60’s) that would be unthinkable now : “Catholic Book Club”; “Catholic Family Reading Club”; and other similar names.
It’s hard to believe such things existed. You could certainly blame television (for the demise). But another factor is that modernism in the arts is so repugnant to people (as it should be, with a few exceptions), that they throw out the baby (Velazquez) too, and simply reject the arts as a whole. A few Catholic publications are trying to reverse the trend, and it is a mission that needs a lot of support. Thanks to Tom Piatak for this essay.
6 Comment by Allen Wilson on 6 June 2008:
Perhaps Google is just engaging in political correctness by ignoring dates of importance in American history and promoting ‘hispanic’ heritage? If so, Velazquez is being misused by fools who dont understand him as anything more than ‘hispanic’ and dont care to.
If all that is true, then the irony is in the surname of the complainer. The unintended, unforseeable good result is this column.
Of course they could just be trying to celebrate a great artist who deserves recognition, and if so, both my reaction and that of Lopez says a lot about how culture has been so distorted by political correctness that some reactionaries, having for so long suffered under the evil, now see political correctness and cultural subversion even when it’s not there at all.
7 Comment by R. Cort Kirkwood on 7 June 2008:
Tom:
It’s NRO, natch.
8 Comment by Jack on 9 June 2008:
On the 50th anniversary of Star Trek or Star Wars, you can bet that NR will have a non-stop, week-long feature.
9 Comment by Tom Piatak on 9 June 2008:
My post number three shows the dangers of relying on memory alone. Becoming a member of the Order of Santiago was indeed important to Velazquez, but he did not become a member until three years after he painted Las Meninas, so the cross was painted onto his tunic after he completed the painting. Legend has it that was painted on by Philip IV, in tribute to his long-serving court painter.
10 Comment by michael warning on 9 June 2008:
“Part of what makes America great is that we are part of a great civilization, of which Velázquez is one of the towering figures. If we cannot honor and remember those who contributed to that civilization before America was born, it is hard to see what will stop Western civilization from eventually descending into barbarism.”
I don’t buy this argument anymore that America is part of a great civilization. America is new. We have discarded and destroyed most of western civilization. Look at our current culture, what does it have to do with the culture found in Western Europe in 1500? Look at our form of Government what does it have to do with the Old Order of things? America is the leader in rejecting the Western Civilization of a Velázquez.
Would anyone here in America even fund such an artist as Velázquez today? It is time to realize that Our Country is not a defender of Western Civilization, but a destroyer. This is why the Muslims are overrunning Europe. We have ordered it.
11 Comment by Derek Leaberry on 9 June 2008:
Several years ago, National Review disavowed the Confederacy and its soldiers, reversing its previous respect for the men in gray. The new National Review has pretty much disavowed its old position on the Civil Rights bills of the 60s and many of its columnists were part of the anti-Trent Lott frenzy a few years back when he had the temerity to speak highly of Strom Thurmond and his 1948 Dixiecrat run for the presidency. At this pace, one can only assume that Ronald Reagan will be disavowed sometime in the 2030s when neo-conservatism evolves once again leftwards. Will Bill Clinton become a Truman-like figure for neo-conservatives before mid-century?
12 Comment by Christopher Check on 10 June 2008:
Although Velazquez was painting well after the event, it is probably his dwarves that Chesterton refers to in his rather unflattering (and unfair) portrait of Philip II in his brilliant epic poem LEPANTO:
“The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,
And little dwarves creep out if it, and little dwarves creep in.”
We can cut GKC a little slack: Philip was, after all, the fellow who invaded his country, so a little healthy indulgence in some black legend on the part of an Englishman is acceptable.
Thanks, Tom, for keeping an eye on the juvenilia that makes up so much of American Conservatism’s presence on the web–but it must get awfully depressing.
–Chris
13 Comment by Tom Piatak on 10 June 2008:
Chris,
The Spanish court remained found of dwarves after they had gone out of fashion in other European courts; Velazquez painted quite a few.
–Tom