Amy Sackville
Tuesday 3rd July 2018
Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath, York Street, Bath, Somerset BA1 1NG
7.45pm
8pm
A novel of brilliance, imagination, intrigue and style about the painter Velazquez and his royal subject and benefactor, King Philip IV of Spain. Painter to the King charts Velasquez’ time at the court of King Philip IV of Spain, a court collapsing under the weight of its own excess.
This is a portrait of Diego Velazquez, from his arrival at the court of King Philip IV of Spain, to his death 38 years and scores of paintings later. It is a portrait of a relationship that is not quite a friendship, between an artist and his subject. It is a portrait of a ruler, always on duty, and increasingly burdened by a life of public expectation and repeated private grief. Unfolding through series of masterly set-pieces and glancing sketches, this is a novel of brilliance, imagination and sheer style – about what is shown and what is seen, about art and life.