are the pictures of this little princess at the ages of three, of four, and of seven, with her fair hair tied in a bow at the side of her head, and voluminous skirts of pink and silver.  But sweetest of all is the picture called ‘The Maids of Honour’ (’Les Meninas’), in which the princess, aged about six, is being posed for her portrait.  She is petulant and tired, and two of her handmaidens are cajoling her to stand still.  Her two dwarfs and a big dog have been brought to amuse her, and the King and Queen, reflected in a mirror at the end of the room, stand watching the scene.  Velasquez himself, with his easel and brushes, is at the side, painting.  The picture perpetuates for centuries a moment of palace life.  In that transitory instant, Velasquez took his vivid impression of the scene, and has translated his impression into paint.  Everything is simple and natural as can be.  The ordinary light of day falls upon the princess, but does not penetrate to the ceiling of the lofty room, which is still in shadow.  All seem to have come together haphazard without being fitted into the canvas.  There is little detail, and the whole effect seems produced by the simplest means; yet in reality the skill involved is so great that artists to-day spend weeks copying the picture, in the endeavour to learn something of the secret of Velasquez.

The best judges are among those who rank him highest, so that he is called pre-eminently ‘the painter’s painter.’  It is impossible for any one but a painter to understand how he used paint.  From near at hand it looks a smudge, but at the proper distance every stroke takes its right place.  Such freedom was the result of years of careful painting of detail, and is not to be attained by any royal road.  Velasquez seldom seems to have made preliminary drawings, but of that we cannot be sure.  Certainly he had learned to conceive his vision as a whole, and we may fancy at least that he drew it so upon the canvas—­altering the lines as he went—­working at all the parts of the picture at once, keeping the due relation of part to part; not as if he finished one bit at a time, or thought of one part of a figure as distinct from the rest.  To have drawn separate studies for legs and arms would have been foreign to his method of working.

The pictures painted in this his latest style are few, for the court duties heaped upon him left too little time.  Maria Theresa, the sister of Don Balthazar Carlos, was engaged to be married to Louis XIV., King of France.  The marriage took place on the border of France and Spain, and Velasquez was in charge of all the ceremonies.  The Princess travelled with a cavalcade eighteen miles long, and we can imagine what work all the arrangements involved.  The marriage over, the ever loyal Velasquez returned to Madrid, but he returned only to die.

CHAPTER XIII

REYNOLDS AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY