Velázquez y los Secretarios de Estado. Vicisitudes flamencas de unos retratos del Conde-Duque

Abstract

The correspondence of the Secretarles of State and War of the Government of Flanders shows that between 1637 and 1639 Velázquez received several commissions of portraits of the Count-Duke of Olivares which were to be «originals» based on a 1636 model. This information allows us to cali into question a commonplace in art criticism, namely, that Velázquez never repeated himself and that, therefore, variant versions of the «same» picture must necessarily be regarded as «studio» paintings or copies executed by a different hand. The present study examines the possible interests, utilitarian or symbolic, that the Olivares portraits would have served for a bureaucratic clientele; analogous cases dealing with questions of attribution, as found in the coeval literature; and, finally, Velázquez's social status as an artist.