La Forge de Vulcain (Velázquez)
Also known as: La Forge de Vulcain, la Forge de Vulcain, le Vulcain de Vélasquez, Vulcain de Vélasquez, La Fragua de Vulcano, The Forge of Vulcan
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Overview
La Fragua de Vulcano (The Forge of Vulcan, 1630) by Diego Velázquez shows Apollo, crowned with laurel, bursting into Vulcan's forge to tell the smith that his wife Venus has been unfaithful with Mars; the smith and his four journeymen stop at the anvil in astonishment. Painted in Rome in 1630, it is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. (Source: Museo del Prado; Commons description of the Prado file.)
Marie and this painting
In Madrid in October 1881 Marie made a copy of it. On 10 October 1881 she writes that all in painting depends on the execution: « Qu'est-ce que la Forge de Vulcain de Vélasquez ou ses Filandières, ôtez à ces tableaux cette peinture prodigieuse et l'... » (093.0205, with a reader footnote on Las Hilanderas). On 12 October 1881 she finishes it: « Je finis ma copie du Vulcain de Vélasquez, à en croire le public elle doit être bonne », watched several times a day by the poor copyists who make reductions for sale, by the art students, and by foreign visitors, who say flattering things in English, French and Spanish (093.0214). The copy itself is not recorded in the catalogue of her works; see Marie Bashkirtseff's works.
Other Velázquez works in the diary
- Las Hilanderas (« ses Filandières »), the Prado, mentioned at 093.0205 with the Forge.
- A Christ en croix, « un Christ tout seul, au musée de Madrid », whose effect she finds so poignant that one cannot look long (103.0176, 29 January 1884; contrasted with Munkácsy's Golgotha). This is Velázquez's Cristo crucificado in the Prado (identification by the editors).
- The infanta de Velasquez of 078.0126 (12 February 1878): a comparison for Marie's own dress at a performance of La Traviata, not a specific painting.
- The portrait of a sculptor with the hand: Martínez Montañés.