DUKE OF OLIVARES. Velasquez
hand. To create something out of nothing—colossal!”
“That is a good copy,” said J. A canvas, still wet, stood on an easel near the Montañez.
“Ah, yes—you may say so. That is made by an American—a certain Hibson; he has talent if you will; he will arrive! notice what I say, that man will go far.”
In Spanish G is pronounced H. The “Hibson,” of whom Villegas foretold great and serious things, the new star on the artistic horizon, in an earlier incarnation, achieved fame as the creator of the Gibson Girl!
“I saw that effect of sky this morning. Velasquez painted that background on a day like this.”
We were standing before the portrait of the Duke de Olivarez, with the bare blue plains of Castile and the snow-capped Guaderrama behind him. You feel the keen, clear air with the bite of the wind from the snow mountains, as you look at that picture of the Duke on his prancing war-horse of the best Arabo-Velasquez breed!
“Look at that dog! It is nothing, painted with nothing, when you look close at it; take two steps backwards, and it is everything.”
It was the dog in the Meninas, one of the details Villegas never failed to look at as he passed.