It’s his virtuosity that has brought Velázquez the admiration of generations of painters.

A Mammoth Paris Show Covers Velázquez’s Career
By INTI LANDAURO

Museums around the globe provide 119 artworks for the Grand Palais’s exhibition

One of the most comprehensive displays of works by Diego Velázquez is opening this week at Paris’s Grand Palais. Showcasing 119 artworks from museums around the globe, it will cover the breadth of his career. But pulling together this large retrospective of the influential 17th-century Spanish painter was no easy feat for curator Guillaume Kientz.

Mr. Kientz, the chief conservationist for Spanish paintings at the Louvre, which is jointly producing the exhibition, spent the past two years negotiating with private collectors and museums to assemble some of the Spanish master’s most famous works in what will be the Grand Palais’s blockbuster show of the year.

“The idea was to update the public on the research made over Velázquez over the past years,” said Mr. Kientz, referring to the recent headway art historians have made on identifying the authors of disputed works and on the influence Italian masterCaravaggio had on Velázquez. “You can put reproductions side by side in a book; it’s very different to have them together for real.”...........

..................

Read more: www.wsj.com