ALCOBA DIEGO VELAZQUEZ
"NO-SMOKING" ROOM

This bedchamber was originally the boys’ bedroom, and has a queen bed.  A stone stairway leads to a loft, where there is a sofa bed and a desk.

Like all “Estrella de Belem” bedchambers, it has insulated windows, radiant heat floors, air conditioning, an LCD television, high-speed internet access, electronic safe and direct-dial telephone.  The furniture is French country style and is made of alder, a tree from the British Isles that the Celts and Scots believed was sacred.

 

The oil painting that decorates the room is a copy of “The Adoration of the Magi” by Diego Velazquez, dated 1619, and may have been painted for the Novitiate of the Seville Jesuits.  It was painted when he was 20 years old and Velazquez almost certainly used his family as models to paint the scene.  The painting is known for its gloomy style, with strong contrasts of light and shadows and dark colors.



Diego Velazquez was the greatest painter of the Spanish School. He was born in Seville.  In 1617, he qualified as a master painter.  Velázquez was exceptionally precocious and while he was still in his teens, he painted pictures that display commanding presence and complete technical mastery.  In 1622, Velázquez paid a short visit to Madrid, during which he painted a portrait of the poet Luis de Gongora (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). In the following year he was recalled to the capital by Philip IV's chief minister and painted a portrait of the king that pleased Philip so much that he appointed him one of his court painters and declared that from that time on only Velázquez should paint his portrait. Thus, at the age of 24, he had suddenly become the country's most prestigious painter, and he kept his position as the king's favorite unchallenged for the rest of his life. With his appointment as court painter, the direction of Velázquez's work changed. He entirely abandoned still life and, although he painted historical, mythological, and religious pictures intermittently throughout his career, from then on he was primarily a portraitist. He was also a courtier and held several court appointments, which reduced the amount of time he had for painting.  In 1649, he returned to Italy where he painted Pope Innocent X, and in 1651, he returned to Madrid.  In his later years he painted “Las Meninas” (The Maids of Honor) and “Las Hilanderas” (The Spinners).   He died in Madrid in August, 1660.